Gordon Ramsay starts a bizarre war of words with Jamie Oliver over the size of their families

Celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay have reportedly exchanged some bitter words. Photo / Getty Images

They are two of Britain's most successful chefs, with nearly 100 restaurants between them.

So you might think Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver would have better things to do than squabble over the size of their families, as the Daily Mail reports.

But the pair have become embroiled in an extraordinary row over how many children they have. Ramsay, 50, yesterday accused Oliver of "judging" him for having four children, compared to Oliver's five.

The row began in March when Ramsay presented ITV's The Nightly Show for a week, in which he made numerous jibes about his 42-year-old rival including calling him "fat" and criticising his cooking.

When Oliver, whose fifth child River Rocket was born last year, was asked about this by The Sun in August, he said: "I was doing TV years before him, so maybe five years ago it would have bothered me and I may have responded.

"But he's got four kids and I've got five kids, and I don't want to be slagging off some kids' dad on telly. It's not nice."

Yesterday Ramsay, whose wife Tana suffered a miscarriage at five months last year, said he interpreted the comments as a dig after what was "a s*** year".

He told Radio Times that their feud - which began in 2009 when Oliver stuck up for a journalist whose physical appearance had been criticised by Ramsay - was "fun" until Oliver made the comment.

He said: "Jamie turned round and said, 'I've got five kids, he's got four kids.' To judge someone else's family on the amount of kids you have." Ramsay, who also ruptured his achilles tendon last year while his daughter suffered a collapsed lung, said he would not talk to Oliver again until he apologises to Tana. He said: "Boys will always fight and butt heads but Tana was mortified, I mean really mortified."

He then went on to accuse Oliver of being too political, adding that "the only time he opens his mouth is when he's got something to promote".

He said: "It's all very well to spout off now about sugar tax and supermarkets. None of that was spoken about when he was label-slapping with Sainsbury's for ten years. And no disrespect, but we're chefs, not politicians. When you breathe that stuff down the public's throat and say, 'I'm leaving if we have Brexit', then, I'm sorry, the door stands open."

Oliver blamed the "uncertain economy" post-Brexit for the closure of six of his Jamie's Italian restaurants in January, and in June last year he said he would leave the UK if Boris Johnson became prime minister after leading the Brexit campaign, which he claimed left Europe 'fractured'.

Ramsay said Brexit would be good for the restaurant industry as it will be a "kick up the ass" to British workers who have become "lazy" while those from abroad "work twice as hard for less money".

In the interview, he also said his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, who was jailed for six months earlier this year for hacking into Ramsay's computers, has apologised and that "we've all moved on".

A spokesman for Oliver did not comment.