Top Gear Paddy’s wife: I tell him not to go fast
CHRISTINE McGuinness has told how she “really worries” about husband Paddy doing BBC car show Top Gear.
The 31-year-old also said she has warned Take Me Out presenter Paddy, who joined the Top Gear team in 2018, to stay within the speed limit.
Christine said: “I try and tell him not to go too fast. I want him to be careful.
“Some of the places they go are incredible and he’s seeing the world doing a job he loves.
“But I do watch it thinking, ‘Oh my God’.” Christine, who married Paddy, 46, in 2011, told how he is a very sensible driver away from the show because of their children – twins Leo and Penelope, six, and three-year-old Felicity – who are all autistic.
Speaking at the Best Heroes Awards at the Bloomsbury Hotel in London, she said: “He’s pretty good at driving. He’s very sensible but when he’s on the show, he goes back to being a boy in a car. He loves it. It’s his dream job driving these cars and working with friends. He is living his best life.”
But Christine’s fears are not unfounded as Paddy’s co-star Freddie Flintoff has already had two accidents on the show.
In February, the father-of-three crashed his electric car into a market stall in Mansfield after taking part in a highspeed race around the town.
The 41-year-old also careered off the same racetrack near York where former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond had a near fatal smash in 2006. Former cricketer Freddie – whose real name is Andrew – escaped injury but later admitted he “went too far”.
Richard, 49, was in a coma for two weeks and suffered a brain injury after his jetpropelled Vampire dragster crashed at 288mph.
The presenter, who now cohosts The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, also narrowly escaped the wreckage of a supercar before it burst into flames in Switzerland in 2017.