Richard Hammond wife ended marriage 'months ago' after horror crashes 'changed him'

• Showbiz
• Richard Hammond

Richard and Mindy Hammond surprised everyone when they revealed they were splitting up after 22 years of marriage, but according to a source - the pair split well before then

Richard Hammond's wife Mindy ended their marriage several months before going public with their split.

Former Top Gear presenter Richard, 55, announced on Thursday that he and his wife Mindy would be parting ways after 22 years of wedded bliss. Things had already been rough between the pair for months, with Richard being forced to sleep in a barn on their property towards the end of their marriage.

Now, with the announcement public, Richard and Mindy are in the process of divorcing, splitting their assets between them, despite Mindy insisting she will keep their £7million residence at Bollitree Castle in Herefordshire. Further details of the pair's split have now been uncovered and it has been revealed that the pair had actually split long before they made the secret known.

Having slept in the barn where he had stored his motorbikes, Richard is now living in a rented accommodation close to the house so he can maintain his "Smallest Cog" garage. But in a new revelation, Mindy is reported to have said that Richard's two horror crashes had "changed him" as a person.

Insiders close to the couple revealed that daredevil Richard - who shares daughters Isabella, 24, and Willow, 22 - had become gradually harder to live with as the years went on from his incidents. Sources added that Mindy had given Richard his "last chance" as early as 2017, months before he was involved in his second near-fatal collision.

In 2006, Richard was lucky to be alive after crashing his Vampire jet-car at a dizzying 288 miles per hour whilst filming for iconic BBC show Top Gear. Then, in 2017, the star had his second brush with death after he careered off a hill in a £2million supercar that caught fire while he was racing through the Swiss Alps - this time, whilst filming for The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video.

He narrowly missed death for a second time in 2017 whilst racing through Switzerland(Image: PA)

Speaking to the Daily Mail, a source close to the couple said: "Richard has been through an awful lot and the knock-on effect from the crashes has impacted his relationship. It's understandable given the sheer magnitude of the accidents and the impact caused both physically and mentally, he's done so well to recover and get back to normal life.

"But they have changed him, there's no getting away from it, and his relationship with Mindy has been harmed during the fallout," the insider went on to say. Richard himself said he had been changed as a result of the crash, which he said massively impacted his short-term memory.

Mindy and Richard are now believed to have ended their marriage months before making the split public(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for BAFTA)

Speaking during an interview in 2022, he explained that his memory was "not what it was" and has in fact, gotten worse. He was quick to distinguish between the two, saying that he can remember a script whilst working with ease but he cannot recall what might have happened within the past two weeks.

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