Hamster’s wife: Another crash and he is off the television
RICHARD Hammond’s wife will slam the brakes on his TV job if he has any more car crashes.
Long-suffering Mindy, 47, revealed her ultimatum after the ex-Top Gear host’s latest lucky escape from a smash.
Last month “Hamster” managed to crawl from the wreckage of a 220mph electric car with a broken knee before it burst into flames.
Mindy told him: “I did say, three strikes and you’re out – you’ve had two goes.”
The mum of two, who was sitting next Hammond on ITV’s This Morning sofa, said she carried on shoe shopping for their elder girl Izzy, 16, after hearing her husband was in a Swiss hospital.
She explained: “I said to Izzy, ‘We were coming to buy you shoes, we’re going to go and buy your shoes.’ She was thinking, ‘She’s gone nuts,’ but you just keep doing something.”
Hammond, 47, said: “She actually carried on shopping, let’s be quite clear that’s what they did.” But Mindy insisted: “I did sort of go a bit funny, which I’ve never done before. “On the day of the accident I called him and said ‘Have you finished yet?’ and he said ‘I’ve just got to do a couple more goes.’ Then there was a phone call, and it was: ‘I’ve had a bit of a shunt.’” In 2006 he suffered brain injury and nearly died in a dragster crash. Mindy said: “He has one of these every 10 years, I’ve marked the next one in my diary.” Hammond, who presents The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, is keen to drive as soon as his knee injury allows. He said: “It’ll be weeks, not months, maybe a couple of months max.” He said he “might go a bit slowly” next time he is driving on a Swiss mountain. His knee was pinned, leaving one leg 7mm shorter than the other and revealed his biggest concern is that he won’t be able to go running for up to 18 months. He is now nicknamed Poppa Crutch by his teenage daughters.