LONDON - Television chef Gordon Ramsay apparently joked Friday about monitoring his teenage daughter’s bedroom with a camera to make sure she was studying for her exams.
The "Kitchen Nightmares" star told British talk show host Jonathan Ross that he had installed a device in her room to make sure she was working hard.
“Megan’s 15, she’s here tonight with her boyfriend,” Ramsay said on the ITV show. “They’ve been spending a lot of time in her room recently. But revising. Revising.”
It was not immediately clear if the chef was being serious. His spokeswoman told NBC News she believed Ramsay was joking in the interview, which is scheduled to air Friday evening. Clips of the show were released in advance by ITV publicists.
The Michelin-starred chef claimed he had enlisted the help of his 13-year-old son in the scheme.
“I’ve been a bit naughty over the last couple of weeks because I got Jack a little Go-Pro. One of those little secret cameras,” he said.
“I said to him, ‘Look mate, here’s twenty quid [about $30], go and target your big sister’s room and put that camera right at the top left-hand side of the wardrobe."
Ramsay, 46, has four children with his wife Tana, 38. Megan is the eldest, while Jack has a twin sister, Holly. Matilda, 11, is the youngest.
Last year, U.S. student Aubrey Ireland obtained a restraining order against her parents after she discovered they had installed monitoring software on her computer and her phone.