Richard Hammond appears with rarely-seen daughter Isabelle, 24, as he says Top Gear crash ‘changed his brain’
The TV presented vowed to give up stunts after the terrifying crash
RICHARD Hammond made a TV appearance with his rarely-seen daughter Isabelle and revealed that his Top Gear crash in 2006 ‘changed his brain’.
The 56-year-old, who has been in a number of accidents over the years, had a near-fatal crash 18 years ago while filming BBC’s Top Gear.
Richard was rushed to hospital and put into a coma after the accident, and after the crash Richard suffered with depression, paranoia and memory loss.
The presenter and his daughter Isabelle, 24, recently decided to create their own podcast – Who We Are Now – to chat about mental health, which was born out of his struggles after the crash.
Appearing on this morning’s ITV’s Lorraine this morning to chat about their new podcast, Isabelle mentioned how his brain had changed after the horrific accident.
Isabelle, who was just four years old at the time of the crash, said: “Us as a family as well, we spent a long time talking about his brain. We had to.
“It’s been sort of keeping an eye on it, his behaviour, how he’s thinking, how he’s acting, how he’s feeling…
“Because obviously he recovered in hospital, but when he was back home that was very much mainly my mum just keeping an eye on him, making sure he was okay and being very open about how he felt.”
Richard wants other men his age to start talking about their mental health and would like his podcast to inspire them to do so.
He said: “As middle aged men were not very good at talking about stuff.
“But because I was so publicly brain injured, there’s no shame or stigma for me talking my emotional state, mental health state, because I’ve had to deal with all that. And the guys around me.
“I wanted to do the podcast in that space about that and address it.
“I have kind of got permission to do it. I think blokes can hear me talking about it because it’s not embarrassing.”
RICHARD’S THOUGHTS
Richard recalled the moment when the jet-powered car began spinning while filming for Top Gear.
He recalled: “There was a sense of regret, but there was also a sense of answering a question that I’ve always wanted the answer to.
“Because we do all wonder at some point, ‘When’s that going to happen to me?’
“And it was very much, ‘Oh, it’s now, and the next thing to do is to die’.
“It wasn’t frightening. I wasn’t wildly unhappy. I was very calm.”
Richard, Jeremy Clarkson and James May presented Top Gear between 2002 and 2015.
They are now hosts of Amazon’s The Grand Tour.
THE AFTERMATH
After the accident Richard vowed to give up death-defying stunts for the sake of his family.
He told at the time: “I’ve a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters. I’m not going to risk leaving them…”
Richard shares his children, Isabelle and Willow, 20, with wife Mindy, 58.
But the TV star has been in a number of other crashes, including one in 2017 and some involving motorbikes.
Seven years ago Richard jumped from motor at 120mph to avoid dying in a fireball while filming in Switzerland for The Grand Tour.
Richard Hammond's worst accidents
- September 2006 – Richard crashed a jet-powered car at the former RAF Elvington airfield in York on 20 September. The front tyre failed and spun out of control. He was airlifted to hospital and put in an induced coma.
- June 2017 – While filming for The Grand Tour he crashed a Rimac Concept One supercar in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He remained conscious and airlifted to hospital where he was told he had fractured his knee.
