EXCLUSIVE: The Yorkshire Vet's Matt Jackson-Smith opens up about being held at gunpoint as a teenager, meeting his wife Katherine and what it's like being a real-life James Herriot
The 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.”
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