JEREMY Clarkson has revealed he has moved out of the mansion he shares with his wife Frances.

Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear host, who has laughed off claims of an extramarital affair with a colleague and poured scorn on Twitter allegations that he had a fling with socialite Jemima Khan, has written that he is spending time away from the family home.

Friends say Clarkson and Frances - they have been married for 18 years - are spending time apart at the moment by "mutual agreement", MailOnline reported.

A source close to Clarkson confirmed the couple needed space as they try to recover from allegations of Clarkson's infidelity.

Writing in his regular newspaper column, father-of-three Clarkson, 50, was in reflective mood, discussing in self-pitying fashion the trials facing the undomesticated lone male.

"So, when I moved recently into an unfurnished flat I spent the first evening sitting on the floor, wondering what is essential and what, really, is not," he wrote.

"Obviously I'd need a fridge and a cooker. But what about a dishwasher? Could I not wash the pots myself? I decided that I could. I also decided that I could do without a washing machine. Though this is mostly because I've never used one. I don't understand them. They seem to make no sense.

"So no. I’d take my clothes to the launderette and let someone in a nylon overall wash them for me."

Clarkson does not reveal why he was living in the London flat rather than at the $3 million home he shares with his wife in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

He goes on to decide he would "definitely" need a television, coffee machine and a PlayStation, admitting: "I can’t really live unless I spend at least an hour a day shooting Nazi zombies in the face."

The list is complete when he adds the ultimate bachelor necessity - pornography.

"And I’d need some pornography as well, so that would mean I’d need an internet," he wrote.

By the end of the column, the presenter’s mood becomes even more forlorn. Having battled with his domestic needs, he admits that only three of the four items in his flat actually work.

"So if you do lose your job and you end up living in a barn, with just a fire to keep you warm and nothing to eat but what you can find in a hedge, be happy," he wrote.

"Because you’ll be having a much better life than me. Who’s just noticed that there’s a message on the TV screen. Apparently, no satellite signal is being received."

Originally published as Clarkson moves out of marital home