By the laws of celebritydom, the pending nuptials of a farm manager from the Cotswolds shouldn’t excite the showbiz desks of Fleet Street. But Kaleb Cooper is no normal farmer.
He’s the 27-year-old gilet-wearing sidekick to Jeremy Clarkson, often referred to as ‘the foetus’ by his 66-year-old boss. Kaleb’s been catapulted to global fame and considerable fortune courtesy of Clarkson’s Farm, the Amazon smash hit now in its fifth series.
And as such his forthcoming wedding to fiancée Taya Wilkinson is subject to, if not fevered speculation, then at least keen curiosity among viewers who have never seen Taya on TV, nor Caleb in a suit.
The couple have remained tight-lipped about the summer ceremony, which my sources say is imminent, but speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Kaleb has shared the first details (he wants a tractor involved, Taya does not) and an insight into the preparations.
‘I want to say I’m really hands on but that’s a lie,’ he tells me. ‘I can’t really say that, it is Taya that has done the majority of it.’
Taya is the mother to their three children: Oscar, five, Willa, three, and Ashton whose birth they announced last August.
‘It’s both of our dreams to get married,’ Kaleb tells me. ‘But Taya is very much like “I want it in a certain way, I want my dress to be a certain way”, which is good.’
He continues: ‘I think everyone should have that in their life and go, right, if you’re going to get married, it’s a very special day for everybody, family included, so therefore you’ve got to have your own say of how you want it to go.’
Kaleb has been catapulted to global fame and considerable fortune courtesy of Clarkson’s Farm, the Amazon smash hit now in its fifth series
Taya (L) is the mother to their three children: Oscar, five, Willa, three, and Ashton whose birth they announced last August
‘It’s both of our dreams to get married,’ Kaleb tells me. ‘But Taya is very much like “I want it in a certain way, I want my dress to be a certain way”, which is good’
But when it comes to his second love – farming machinery – Kaleb is determined to dig his wellies in.
He tells me: ‘I want tractors there, I want foragers there, but Taya’s like I don’t really want tractors there if I’m being honest, and I’m going, you haven’t really got a choice!’
The give and take between the couple seems to amount to his agreeing to ‘things like yellow dresses for example’ and her bowing to it being ‘very farm-driven’.
While the guestlist will be long, the nuptials will remain strictly private.
‘We get married in a local place and then back to a farm for a big party. It’s a big do, so it’s a big guest list,’ he says.
‘It’s gonna be a great party, it’s gonna mix theatre, television people and farmers. We’re all in the same room, so it’s gonna go wild I think.’
The apparently star-studded guestlist is closely guarded, but, of course, Clarkson will be there, following his announcement last week that his prostate cancer is in remission. ‘He’s got a strong mind on him,’ Kaleb – who’s been ‘by Jeremy’s side’ throughout his illness – says admiringly.
And he’s bringing the booze.
Kaleb tells Alex Doyle: ‘I want tractors there, I want foragers there, but Taya’s like I don’t really want tractors there if I’m being honest, and I’m going, you haven’t really got a choice!’
Jeremy Clarkson (L) will be at Kaleb and Taya’s wedding, following his announcement last week that his prostate cancer is in remission. And he’s bringing the booze
Jeremy’s Hawkstone brewery, which is co-owned with entrepreneur Johnny Hornby, will be keeping guests refreshed with an unlimited supply.
A grin spreading across his face, Kaleb says: ‘It’s just literally Hawkstone on tap.
‘You can imagine the kegs and instead of filling up your glass, you can just sit underneath the keg if you want.
‘That’s the feral farm wedding we’re gonna have.’
The hearts of few brides would leap at the thought of their Big Day being ‘feral’ but Taya and Kaleb have been together for 10 years, and at least she had a traditional proposal. On Christmas Day, 2022, he got down on one knee, and in a touching social media post he confirmed: ‘She said yes!’
While Kaleb has become a household name, Taya shies from the limelight – her modest Instagram following of 334 is dwarfed by husband-to-be’s 3.2million.
Fans have warmed to the couple’s down-to-earth spirit and no doubt TV executives are keen for an ‘at home’ series tailing the new Cooper-Wilkinsons and their brood, but for now they are making do with Kaleb alone.
Indeed, he has been handed his own four-part show, taking him halfway around the world. Slated to be released later this year, the series sees the homebird fly to Australia, to discover how farmers do it Down Under.
Later this year, Kaleb’s own four-part show will be released. It will see him fly to Australia to learn about farming practices over there
He’s only left Britain once (a road trip with Jeremy to the Netherlands), and his first solo flight promises to be a feat of TV (on that road trip he asked a bemused Jeremy if the ‘air in France smelled different’).
It’s all money in the bank for Kaleb, who is worth north of £1million, with his three firms registered with Companies House in rude health. Kaleb Cooper Productions, in particular, in which he desposits his media earnings, has seen its account swell from £242,000 in 2023 to £817,000 last year, according to its latest figures.
Away from television, Kaleb has built a business empire that takes in his farm contracting, merchandise sales including branded hoodies and tops, and a livestock firm specialising in the sale of premium beef joints.
But he’s unlikely to splash his cash on a Champagne lifestyle of sportcars and private jets, because he is saving to buy his own farm.
‘They don’t come cheap,’ he has said. ‘I’m saving everything, but because it’s the Cotswolds, the prices are going through the roof.’
Yet Kaleb does not hail from a farming family. His interest only began aged 13 when he raised hens and sold their eggs at school.
Around the same time, his parents divorced, ‘and that’s the reason I’m the person I am today,’ he has said. ‘My mum was struggling to pay the rent, so therefore I stood up and went, “I’m going to be the man of this house, help you pay the electric, gas and part of the rent and if you need money for petrol, I’ll pay for that as well”.
‘It made me think outside the box and become entrepreneurial.’
He added: ‘I could have been a spoilt little brat if farming hadn’t come along and swallowed me up. I owe my life to farming.’
He left school as an early teen, helped out at a dairy farm, and eventually went on to study agriculture at Moreton Morrell College, in Warwick. He then became a contractor for local farms back in the Cotswolds, tilling Diddly Squat’s fields long before Jeremy arrived.
While he wouldn’t have been able to foresee the globe-trotting stardom that would follow, he was always going to give Taya her Big Day.
