Richard Hammond and wife Mindy split after 'amazing 28 years' following car crash horror
The Grand Tour star Richard Hammond has announced he and his wife, Mindy, have split after 28 years together - with the couple saying their "marriage is coming to an end"
Richard Hammond and his wife, Amanda "Mindy" Hammond, have called time on their marriage after an "amazing 28 years together". The former Top Gear star and his spouse, who he wed in 2002, released a heartfelt statement via his X account.
They shared: "A little update from us; this Christmas we were together as a family and this year we will still be a family but just structured a bit differently. Our marriage is coming to end, but we've had an amazing 28 years together and two incredible daughters.
"We will always be in each other's lives and are proud of the family we created. We won't be commenting further and sincerely hope that our privacy and that of our children will be respected at this time. With Love, Richard and Mindy."
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Fans were quick to express their sadness in the comments section, sending well-wishes to both Richard and Mindy. One fan said: "Wishing you both all the best."
Another added: "Its no one's business but your own, as much as some would love it to be otherwise. Enjoy life.", reports the Mirror.
The couple's journey has been marked by challenges, notably the harrowing 2006 car crash that left Hammond in a coma for two weeks. Mindy was instrumental in his recovery following the near-fatal accident involving a jet-powered supercar during filming for BBC's Top Gear, which crashed at 319mph.
In a miraculous turn of events, he woke up from his coma, but his wife Mindy was left stunned when he failed to recognise her. "It was disconcerting when, early after the crash, Richard looked at me from his hospital bed and said, 'You're lovely, but you're not my wife'," she shared with the Telegraph.
"When I corrected him, he responded, 'No, you're not my wife, my wife is French'. Indeed, when he was allowed home five weeks later, it became clear that Richard's memory loss was no short-term affliction."
The couple had to grapple with Richard's mood swings and he developed depression due to his brain injury. His short-term memory was impacted by the crash and he couldn't retain information for more than 10 seconds.
As a result, they would have the same conversations repeatedly as Richard would lose track and repeat the same sentence.
"It was a harrowing, horrible time," she confessed. "The nurse had tried all these observations by prodding him and she was clearly getting nothing. And I remember saying to her 'It's bad, isn't it? ' Because obviously things were going in the wrong direction, she started shouting 'Richard, Richard' at him. I said 'Can I shout at him too?
"I got really close to his face and shouted: 'Richard, Richard, squeeze those bloody fingers. You've got to come back'. You are hysterical because you just know if you don't get a response, the slide is starting. I was swearing at him. You would do anything."
Richard Hammond still harbours concerns about the lasting impact on his health after surviving a second high-speed car crash while filming for The Grand Tour in Switzerland in 2017. His co-presenters, Jeremy Clarkson and James May, could only watch in horror as the €2.4m (£2m) supercar he was driving flipped and caught fire, unsure if their mate was trapped inside.
"I can feel it now; the coldness. My knees turning to jelly," Jeremy recalled on DriveTribe.com. "Then came news from a nearby marshal that he wasn't [inside]. That he'd got out before the fire started. And that 'his body' – that's what they said – was behind a screen at the bottom of the hill.
"I couldn't see Hammond. I didn't want to see him. Not after a crash that big. What I do know is that I genuinely thought he was dead."
Thankfully, Richard emerged from the accident with just a shattered knee and a broken rib, and he recovered fully in a Swiss hospital.
Now, six years later, he suspects his long-term memory has suffered due to the first crash and admits he's "too scared" to undergo medical checks for potential future complications.
He opened up to Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast in February 2023, confessing: "I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes," adding that it could be due to age, workload, or "the onset of something else..." He's also put an end to performing risky stunts, as he told the Mirror: "I've a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters. I'm not going to risk leaving them."
Richard and his wife Mindy are parents to two daughters - Isabella, 24, and Willow, 22. He co-hosts the podcast Who We Are Now with Izzy and shared a touching moment from last year when she had an epiphany about his career: "We had a really wonderful moment walking across London. We had just recorded a podcast and we were going to do some filming, we were really busy. She just turned me and said, 'Daddy? What you do - it's work, isn't it? ' And I said, 'Yes, it's a job. It always has been.' I could have cried at that point because it was like, 'Yes, I've been working all these years and not just messing about.' It's quite lovely."
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