Richard Hammond announces split from wife Mindy after 28 years

Richard Hammond has today confirmed that he and his wife Mindy have gone their separate ways after almost three decades together.

The former Top Gear presenter broke the news on X with an emotional joint statement, revealing the couple had split following 28 years of marriage.

"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," the message read.

"Our marriage is coming to end, but we’ve had an amazing 28 years together and two incredible daughters."

The statement continued: "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 with daughter Izzy over Christmas (Instagram/@richardhammond)

Richard and Mindy married back in 2002 and share two daughters together, Izzy, 24, and Willow, 22.

Back in 2019, Mindy explained how they 'almost started again' after her husband famously almost died in the mid 2000s while filming a stunt for BBC's Top Gear.

Richard had been involved in a 288mph car accident, which left him hospitalised for several weeks and led to concerning long-term memory loss.

"He didn’t seem capable of retaining information for more than 10 seconds, and found himself reading the same newspaper page again and again," she recalled to The Telegraph.

"I became accustomed to circular conversations in which he would endlessly repeat the same sentence. Richard’s personality also changed, and he became prone to mood swings and depression."

Richard and Mindy are ending their marriage after 28 years together (Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty Images)

Mindy continued: "Inevitably, Richard’s illness affected our marriage, but I was always careful not to tell him that he loved me, or pressure him into thinking so. His brain had re-set after the accident, I thought, and if he decided that he no longer wanted to be my husband, that was his choice."

Thankfully, however, the couple were able to come out of the other side, going on to enjoy many more years together.

"Fortunately, that didn’t come to pass, and instead we almost started again, rekindling our relationship from the moment he woke up in that hospital bed," Mindy said.

"That’s not to say, of course, that it was all plain sailing. On occasion, I felt myself getting exasperated with his illness, and at times it felt as if I was taking care of a teenager. But I would take a deep breath every time he forgot something I had just said and learnt to ignore hearing the same sentence on a loop through the course of a day."