Richard Hammond’s daughter Izzy revealed how the presenter’s 320mph horror crash when she was just 4-years old ‘changed his brain’.
The former Top Gear host, 54, was left in a coma for two weeks in 2006 after the car he was driving spun out of control at York’s Elvington airfield.
One of the dragsters tyres blew causing the crash, flipping it upside down and leaving Richard with serious head injuries.
He suffered with a ‘frontal lobe bleed’, causing memory loss, depression and difficulties with emotional experiences following the accident.
Speaking about how Richard’s crash inspired their new father-daughter podcast, Who We Are Now, they discussed his emotional state and mental health afterwards.
Richard Hammond’s daughter Izzy, 22, revealed how the presenter’s 320mph horror crash when she was just 4-years old ‘changed his brain’
The former Top Gear host almost died filming a stunt in a Vampire jet car at York’s Elvington airfield in 2006 with the accident inspiring their new podcast, Who We Are Now
Richard began: ‘Because I was so publicly brain injured I wanted to do the podcast and address it. I felt like I had permission to do so.’
Izzy added: ‘We spent a long time talking about his brain because we have had to keep an eye on how he’s behaving and feeling.
‘We agree on a lot more than we disagree with on the podcast, so much of mental health is universal. Men and women shouldn’t be pigeon holed.’
‘Every group needs to be in a good state for society to work,’ the TV personality added.
Richard hosted Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
The trio then moved on to present Amazon Prime Video’s The Grand Tour from 2016.
Recalling her childhood Izzy said: ‘He was away quite a bit when I was younger. There was a lot of him taking opportunities which he had to do. Then when he was home he would act the fool.
‘Because a lot of it was dangerous my parents didn’t talk about it whereas now I’m older I understand what that work was.’
One of the dragsters tyres blew causing the crash, flipping it upside down and leaving Richard with serious head injuries (Richard’s 2006 crash scene pictured)
He suffered with a ‘frontal lobe bleed’, causing memory loss, depression and difficulties with emotional experience (pictured being transferred by Yorkshire Air Ambulance afterwards)
Speaking about how Richard’s crash inspired their new father-daughter podcast, Who We Are Now, they discussed his emotional state and mental health afterwards
Richard explained how he was never sure when his last job would be so spent a lot of time away from home while working.
After his accident, Richard recovered and returned to the show in early 2007 but revealed in February this year that he fears he has memory loss as a result.
He said he is still suffering the after effects of his brain injuries caused by the extreme deceleration in speed that made his brain ‘slosh’ forward resulting in a ‘frontal lobe bleed’.
In 2017, Hammond was involved in a second crash and was airlifted to hospital in Switzerland while filming Amazon’s The Grand Tour.
The accident took place in the town of St Gallen in north-east Switzerland. Richard had to be pulled from the wreckage of a Rimac supercar worth £2m that later burst into flames.
Incredibly he was able to pull himself from the wreckage before the car caught fire. He was airlifted to hospital with a fractured knee.
Co-host Jeremy Clarkson described the accident as ‘the biggest crash I’ve ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK.’
The BBC show has seen numerous accidents over the years with most recently Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash which left him with ‘lucky to be alive’ in December 2022.
In 2017 Richard cheated death again in another horror crash that saw him be airlifted to hospital where he was treated for serious injuries including a fractured knee
Richard posing in hospital with the X-ray of his fractured knee from his second crash
The former cricketer, 46, was hurt after his is open-topped three-wheel 130mph Morgan Super 3 car, which had no air bags, flipped over leaving him with severe facial injuries and several broken ribs.
Following the near-fatal crash, the BBC announced that it would pause Top Gear – and in November last year it was rested for the ‘foreseeable future’.
Freddie, who is still recovering from his ‘life-altering significant’ injuries, is understood to have negotiated a £9million settlement with the corporation for two years’ loss of earnings as a result of the crash.
The smash came three years after the Freddie narrowly cheated death following a 125mph crash.
The BBC show has seen numerous accidents over the years with most recently Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash which left him with ‘lucky to be alive’ in December 2022 (pictured September 2023)
The former cricketer, 46, was hurt after his is open-topped three-wheel 130mph Morgan Super 3 car (pictured) which had no air bags, flipped over leaving him with severe facial injuries and several broken ribs
In 2019, Flintoff was heard fearfully yelling ‘I can’t stop,’ as he hurtled head-first down a runway just inches off the ground in a three-wheeled cycle car.
He had been racing his co-hosts when he realised he was running out of road and about to overshoot the finish line – seeing him spin off in a cloud of dust.
Flintoff walked away from the ‘near-death’ crash unscathed, insisting he was ‘absolutely fine’.
He said at the time: ‘I go to great lengths to make sure I do well in Top Gear drag races but, on this occasion, I went a few lengths too far. It will look more ridiculous than dangerous when you see it on TV.’