The Yorkshire Vet’s Matt Jackson-Smith opens up about being left ‘shaken up’ after a terrifying robberyGet daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inboxMore Newsletters SubscribePlease enter a valid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later.More NewslettersWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More infoThank you for subscribing!We have more newslettersShow me See OurPrivacy Notice See OurPrivacy Notice×Group 28 Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inboxInvalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later.Sign UpNo thanks, closeWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info×Group 28Thank you for subscribing!We have more newslettersShow MeNo thanks, closeSee our
Privacy NoticeThe Yorkshire Vet’s Matt Jackson-Smith is apologising for running late, having just buckled his adorable 11-month-old daughter Anastasia into her car seat. The TV vet is setting off for a friend’s wedding with his wife Katherine and their lively bundle of joy, who is currently “losing her chuffing marbles in the back” as Matt chats about his new memoir. With a beautiful family, a budding TV career and an autobiography, Matt is in a great place. However, his story could have ended far too soon when he was held up at gunpoint during a terrifying robbery. While working at Blockbuster as an 18-year-old, Matt found himself in the middle of a robbery when two men stormed the video rental shop. “It was quite surreal. Two men burst through the door – one in a Green Goblin mask, another in a balaclava – and they put a gun in my face,” he says. “Everything seemed to slow down.
The Yorkshire Vet star Matt Jackson-Smith has detailed his many veterinary stories in his latest book
(Image: David Cummings)
“The guy with the gun shoved my female co-workers into the backroom and locked them in. The other one was with me, trying to open the tills.” The robbers eventually fled when a “much bigger” customer walked in, however, the ordeal left the teenage Matt reeling. “That really shook me up. I remember shaking afterwards when the police came. It wasn’t until I left that I remembered there was a panic button I could have pressed that Blockbuster had told me about when I joined.” Despite facing a pair of gun-wielding robbers, not even that could prepare Matt for the intensity of veterinary medicine. “The pressure is very different. I don’t think anything can prepare you for what [being a vet] is,” he says. “Not even doing a placement as a student and watching vets. It’s a case of, ‘You’re ready and away you go.’ The best teaching is experience. But now, when someone uses the phrase, ‘Gun to your head’ – I can relate to that!” The 35-year-old became a TV staple when he joined the cast of Channel 5’s The Yorkshire Vet, treating sickly animals across the countryside like a real-life James Herriot. Now, Matt is looking back on the beginnings of his veterinary career in his book, My Life As A Yorkshire Vet. “I’ve been journalling for a number of years, so I had a head start because I didn’t realise how much material I actually had,” he says. “I’m sure any vet would say if they wrote their stories, they would have an encyclopaedia, never mind a little book.” Sign up to OK!’s daily newsletter to get updates sent to your inbox for free
Matt reveals that he was once held a gunpoint as a teenager whilst working at Blockbusters
From being inspired by Australian zookeeper Steve Irwin as a child to wrestling an alligator to discover what sex it was, the book details Matt’s experience in the field – including all the dangers that come with it. “I had a lucky escape a few years ago when I was in a pen with a farmer and a calf with a broken leg, and cows all around,” he says. “We moved the calf into the right position – and the next thing I knew, I was flat on the floor with my legs being trampled. “The mother cow had hoofed me to the ground and trampled over me. As she went for the farmer, I rolled underneath the gate. My legs were quite bruised and it’s made me wary ever since, but that was a close one.” Aside from tending to a wallaby’s broken toe and delivering baby deers, Matt has often found himself fishing various objects out of dogs’ stomachs. “I’ve taken out stones, champagne corks, bits of balls, kebabs, skewers,” he says. “Obviously, underwear is always a problem. I once had to empty a full KFC bucket that this dog had eaten and all these bones were spinning around its stomach like a washing machine.”
Matt has treated all sorts of patients from pregnant cows to alligators and a giant tortoise
Despite the success stories and thank-you cards from his clients, Matt admits that he sometimes suffers with “imposter syndrome” when treatments take a wrong turn. “You learn to process it but you’re always affected by it. You get thicker skin and you learn how to mentally box it away. “No one’s perfect and vet school raises perfectionists. We all care and put so much heart into what we do, so it makes it all the more distressing when things don’t go well,” he says. Thankfully, Matt has his wife Katherine to lean on after a hard day at work. “When something hasn’t gone well, I’ll speak to Katherine about it and be able to see what happened. It takes a degree of effort to switch off,” he admits. “Sometimes, I’m so tired of work, I want to jack it all in, but when you take a break from it, you realise, ‘This is really quite interesting.’ With anything, sometimes you just need a break.”
Matt married his wife Katherine in 2022 – and the couple now share daughter Anastasia
(Image: © 2022 John Hope Photography)
This was something Matt learnt from solicitor Katherine, who he met on dating app Bumble back in 2019. “At that point in time, work was life for me. Katherine pulled me out of it and said, ‘There are other things to do.’ We spent our first Christmas together and that’s when I knew she was The One. She gave me a new perspective, which hasn’t happened to me before. Then everything fell into place,” he says. While Katherine was a fan of The Yorkshire Vet before meeting Matt, she couldn’t stand the blood and gore in some episodes – until Matt took her out to witness a job in person. “When we first started dating, Katherine was really squeamish. She would fast-forward the gory scenes in Game Of Thrones and The Yorkshire Vet,” he says. “But when she came out on the job with me, she didn’t have a choice. “It was nipped in the bud when she helped with a sheep Caesarean section and her hands were covered in blood. She loved it – she was holding back organs.” The couple married in 2022 and began a family of their own in October last year when they welcomed their daughter Anastasia Maria – although parenthood hasn’t been a walk in the park. “It’s the hardest thing ever,” admits Matt. “It’s a whole mixture of emotions and I’ve only just started to properly enjoy it if I’m honest.
Matt admits that fatherhood is “the hardest thing ever”
“Anastasia is nearly one and she’s starting to get her own personality. She loses her marbles for no apparent reason and she’s teething – but I took her for a walk yesterday, strapped to the front of me, and it was so cute. It has its ups and downs.” For now, the pair are happy with having one baby and their dog Harry under their West Yorkshire roof. “They both have little toy zones – Harry wants to get Anastasia’s toys and she wants to get his toys,” says Matt. “There’s definitely some sibling management at this point in time. “At the moment, one child is enough for now and we’re a one-dog household. We’ve got our hands full. We’re also currently looking after a tortoise with a cracked shell and there’s Dennis the bearded dragon, so we’re pretty full.” As for TV, Matt has his eye on Strictly Come Dancing – and after working with JB Gill on his show Springtime On the Farm, he’s backing the JLS singer to win. “I would love to have a go at Strictly,” he smiles. “We’re cheering JB on and it would be awesome if the opportunity came up.” However, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is a big no-no for the vet. “It would be professional ruination to do the jungle because the British Veterinary Association is very anti having animals in there. There are loads of discussions around whether insects are sentient beings, so it’s a hot potato,” he explains. “As much as it would be fun to do, some things are better left alone.” But after his The Yorkshire Vet co-star Peter Wright popped up on All Creatures Great And Small, would Matt also like a cameo on the hit vet drama? “I would love that – I’ll get my flat cap on!” Matt’s book, My Life As a Yorkshire Vet (Mirror Books, £20), is out on Thursday 10 October. You can buy the book on Amazon here. Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnGame Of ThronesJLSStrictly Come DancingDramaJB GillChristmasThe Yorkshire Vet
