Richard Hammond announces father’s death with ‘tremendous grief’ weeks after marriage split
He opened up about the difficult time.
Richard Hammond has revealed the death of his father and shared his ‘tremendous grief’.
The former Top Gear presenter, 55, announced the sad news on a bonus episode of his podcast, Who We Are Now, which he shares with his daughter Izzy.
It comes just weeks after Richard split from his wife of 28 years Mindy, who he shares two daughters with.
Speaking on Who Are We Now, The Grand Tour host explained they’d recently interviewed Professor Green on the podcast, who previously fronted a BBC documentary about his father’s suicide, and has written about it in several songs.
Richard said: ‘I have to say quite early on that since we spoke to Professor Green – because that’s this week’s episode, but we recorded it a little while back – since then, we’ve lost my father, Izzy’s grandfather, he died.’
The pair were talking to a psychiatrist about grief in the extra episode, in which Richard asked: ‘Both of us, Iz, are undergoing change right now – is that changing us?’
Richard hosts the podcast with his daughter Izzy (Picture: Global/PA) Alan Hammond was an author (Picture: surreycountycouncil)He went on: ‘ I’ve noticed since we lost my dad, I don’t wander around daily in a cloud of… there was tremendous grief, of course there was, he was my dad, but it’s kind of in the background.’
He continued: ‘And when it hits me is when I’m pottering about doing something often inconsequential, or thinking about something big, my brain has already formed the thought, “Oh, I must tell dad” and I only sort of get…
‘You know when you’re turning a thought into language, so the thought is there like a little cloud, and then I form it into words so I can communicate to myself and to the world.
‘It gets as far as, “Oh I must tell… oh,’ and it’s not a big crashing emotion, but it’s a definite sense, it’s a reminder, and that’s the brain doing what you just described.’
Richard opened up about the grief he’s faced in recent weeks (Picture: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)The news comes just a month after Richard and Mindy announced their separation.
They shared a statement on X, saying: ‘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.’
Richard and Mindy split after 28 years of marriage (Picture: Dave Benett/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)Richard, who met columnist Mindy in 1995 at a London PR firm and said he fell in love with her ‘in an instant’, was supported by his wife in 2006 following a high-speed crash on Top Gear which left him with serious injuries.
As part of a 2022 video for the DriveTribe YouTube channel, which he co-founded with his former The Grand Tour co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May, he spoke about a dream he was having in hospital after the jet-powered dragster called Vampire crashed at nearly 320mph while filming for Top Gear at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York.
‘Apparently she roared and screamed and swore at me “Don’t you dare die” and that’s when I turned back from this tree in my dream and that’s when I woke,’ he said.
‘My last thought took me somewhere I love and somewhere I’m happy. So I’m not scared of this old tree (in the Lake District). I pass it regularly, most months I come up here and walk, and every time I pass it, I do feel comforted.
