Jeremy Paxman has revealed he was rushed to hospital twice in two days last month after fearing he was having a heart attack while watching squirrels out his window – before re-injuring himself hours later.
The ex-Newsnight presenter said he was “overtaken” by severe chest pains while he was “mind of his own business” at home.
The 72-year-old announcer – who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2021 – said the incident happened while ambulance strikes were underway in February, so he took a taxi to the emergency room with his partner.
To make matters worse, Paxman’s partner, book editor Jillian Taylor, 43, broke her ankle in a freak accident while coming home to check on their dog.
And when Paxman finally returned to their London home the next day, he suffered another injury at his desk and had to go back to hospital.
Jeremy Paxman, pictured last year with a cane, has revealed he was recently hospitalized twice in two days after fearing he was having a heart attack at home while watching squirrels out his window.
Paxman told Saga magazine that, after being patched up, he looked like a “ninth-century Irish monk.”
He said, “I was minding my own business and watching a family of squirrels running up and down the tree outside my window when a pain in my chest seized me.
“I’ve read enough to know that heart attacks are usually accompanied by pain in the arm, though I couldn’t remember which ones.
“Since both seemed to be fine, I assumed everything was fine.
Not good enough for my partner, who immediately thought I needed attention in the ER at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where I was quickly admitted and examined by a rather charming German-born heart specialist.
‘There was a 24-hour ambulance strike that day, so I assume most of my fellow patients, like me, had been taken to hospital by taxi (it was now 10pm).
“At midnight, my partner remembered that we left the dog at home, and Derek would need some paving, or failing that, he’d head to the home of the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice. She took a taxi home.
“She got out of the taxi and fell straight into a hole dug for gas line repairs, breaking her ankle.
The ex-Newsnight presenter said he was ‘seized’ by a strong chest pain while ‘mind his own business’ at home
After spending an uncomfortable night at home, the fracture necessitated visit number two to the ER the next day.
“That night I came home and was told I was breathing strangely.
“Suddenly, without warning, I was attacked by my chair and slammed against the leg of my desk. There was an awful lot of blood on the floor and on the back of my shirt. Back to SEH.
“Sometime well past midnight I was allowed to go home with my head glued together, seeing the whole world as a ninth-century tonsured Irish monk who had been involved in a rather vicious punch.”
Paxman revealed last year that his doctor had diagnosed him with Parkinson’s disease after noticing he was less “exuberant” on University Challenge.
He said the diagnosis came while he was in hospital after collapsing while walking his dog in April 2021, and one of the doctors noticed his face had been given a ‘Parkinsonian mask’.
“Well, it came completely out of the blue,” Paxman said of the diagnosis.
‘I was walking in the square across the street. There was ice nearby and I had the dog with me – the dog was on a leash. The first thing I knew was when someone sat me on a bench. I had fallen over and made a terrible mess of my face.
“I had gone straight down on my horn, which, as you can see, isn’t small. Cuts everywhere. I was a real mess. And when I was in the ER, a doctor came in and said, “I think you have Parkinson’s.”
“And it turns out that he had been watching University Challenge and noticed that my face had acquired the so-called Parkinson’s mask. I wasn’t as exuberant and exuberant as usual. I had no idea.’