Richard Hammond has confirmed he has split from his wife Mindy after 28 years of marriage – which included navigating life after the devastating 2006 car crash which left Richard in a coma
TV star Richard Hammond and his wife, Amanda “Mindy” Hammond, have sadly declared the end of their marriage after 28 years. The former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter took to his social media to share the heartfelt update from him and Mindy, who tied the knot in 2002. They stated: “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.”
Devastated admirers sent their support in the comment section, with one sharing: “Wishing you both all the best,” and another posting: “Its no one’s business but your own, as much as some would love it to be otherwise. Enjoy life.”
The pair has weathered many storms together, including the aftermath of Richard’s harrowing car crash in 2006 which left him fighting for his life in a coma for two weeks. Post-accident, Mindy was by his side, playing a pivotal role in his recovery as he recuperated from the near-fatal crash which happened during filming for BBC’s Top Gear. At the time, Richard was driving a jet-powered supercar that crashed at 319mph, reports the Mirror.
In a remarkable turn of events, the TV host emerged from his coma, only to leave his wife Mindy 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 recounted to 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 faced significant challenges as Richard’s brain injury led to mood swings and a propensity for depression. His short-term memory was severely impacted, rendering him unable to retain information for more than 10 seconds. Consequently, they found themselves engaging in repetitive conversations, with Richard losing track and repeating the same sentences. Mindy described the period as “harrowing” and “horrible.”
Recalling a particularly distressing moment, she said: “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?'”
Mindy continued: “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 has opened up about his lingering health fears following his high-speed car accidents, particularly the harrowing incident in 2017 while filming for The Grand Tour in Switzerland. His co-stars Jeremy Clarkson and James May could only watch in horror as the £2 million supercar he was driving flipped and caught fire.
Recalling the terrifying moment on DriveTribe.com, Jeremy wrote: “I can feel it now; the coldness. My knees turning to jelly,” and shared the relief they felt when they learned Richard had escaped before the blaze: “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 what they said – was behind a screen at the bottom of the hill.”
Jeremy also admitted: “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.”
Despite surviving with a shattered knee and broken rib, and making a full recovery in a Swiss hospital, Richard now admits that his long-term memory seems affected by his first crash and confesses he’s “too scared” to find out if he’s at risk of any other conditions.
He opened up about his struggles with memory on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast, revealing in February 2023: “I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes.” He candidly shared concerns about why he might be experiencing these issues: “It might be because I’m 53, it might be because I’m working a lot and I’m tired, it might be the onset of something else…”
Richard’s tight-knit family includes his two daughters – Isabella, 24, and Willow, 22. He co-hosts Who We Are Now, a podcast with his daughter Izzy, where he recently discussed a heartfelt moment that touched him deeply: “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.”