Richard Hammond nearly died when he crashed a jet-powered supercar at 319mph during filming for Top Gear in 2006, and his wife Mindy was by his side throughout his recovery
Richard Hammond's devoted now ex-wife played a crucial role in his recovery following his near-fatal 2006 car crash that left him in a coma for two weeks. This comes after the pair have announced their split earlier today after being together for 28 years and married for 22 of those.
The Top Gear and The Grand Tour star, now 53, was involved in a horrific accident while racing a jet-powered supercar at 319mph for the BBC show, which resulted in the vehicle flipping and crashing. The terrified crew at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York rushed to get him medical help as Richard's life hung precariously in the balance. Doctors worked tirelessly over the next two weeks to repair the damage done to his body.
Miraculously, he woke from his coma, but his wife Mindy was taken aback 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 revealed 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 had to grapple with Richard's mood swings and his susceptibility to depression due to his brain injury. His short-term memory was impacted by the crash, leaving him unable to retain information for more than 10 seconds, reports the Mirror.
As a result, the pair found themselves having the same conversations repeatedly as Richard would lose track and repeat the same sentence.
Even flicking through the tabloids was a battle for the driving ace, as he'd skim the pages over and over but couldn't digest any of the print. As his body and mind gradually healed from the ordeal, Mindy said their love was reignited, and they even tumbled head over heels for each other once more.
Mindy told the Express about the desperate measures she took beside his hospital bed. "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."
When she gripped his hand, she spotted his index fingers twitching ever so slightly - his first glimmer of consciousness since the collision. "Shortly after that he opened his eyes a sliver, like he'd peered over the edge for a sec. I remember he gazed at me for seconds, completely blank. He hadn't a clue who I was," she continued.
"I went to the loo and absolutely sobbed because I thought 'Where are you?' I thought I actually don't know what the outcome of this is going to be. I now know people come back from brain injury and look at their life and say 'I don't want this'. And look at their wife and think 'I don't want her either!' You just don't know what you will get. I thought, 'Is he ever going to know who I am'. That was hard."
Fondly calling him an "obstinate little whatsit", Mindy expressed her unwavering belief in his recovery, but admitted uncertainty about his state post-accident, when their children Izzy and Willow were merely three and six. He later shared that he had been dreaming about his family during his coma while 'walking' through one of his favourite parts of the Lake District.
Mindy elaborated: "He said 'You were shouting at me' and he knew he was in trouble because I don't normally get cross. To hear me bellowing at him was really unusual and serious. He remembered me shouting and it was an easy route he was walking. It was really hard to 'come back'. It's clearly a tremendous effort."
"The only way he could explain it was imagine being paralysed and you are on your stomach and have to grip with your fingers and haul yourself through. I think that's why when people are in comas and they talk about pulling back, that is literally what you are doing. It is pure grit and determination."
Since his recovery, Richard has become "more patient" and "self-aware", explained Mindy, noting the crash actually made their relationship stronger. However, Richard still harbours concerns over the long-term impacts on his health, bearing in mind his subsequent high-speed car mishap during a shoot for The Grand Tour in Switzerland in 2017.
The episode left his co-stars Jeremy Clarkson and James May in shock as they watched the £2million supercar flip and explode into flames, anxious over whether Richard was stuck in the inferno. Reflecting on the harrowing moment on DriveTribe.com, Jeremy recounted: "I can feel it now; the coldness. My knees turning to jelly," followed by the relief upon hearing from a marshal that Richard wasn't trapped, stating: "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.
"Richard managed to escape the wreckage with a shattered knee and a broken rib, but made a full recovery in Swiss hospital. Six years on, he believes his long-term memory has been affected by the first crash, but is 'too scared' to go for medical tests to see if he's at risk of developing other conditions.
"I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes," he admitted to Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast in February 2023.
"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.."
He's also sworn off dangerous stunts, telling the Mirror: "I've a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters. I'm not going to risk leaving them."
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