FREDDIE MINTOFF
£1m pay boost as fans loveTop Gear
Jodie with fellow Bafta winners Fiona and Phoebe last year
FREDDIE Flintoff has driven his earnings up by more than £1million thanks to car show Top Gear.
The former England cricketer has been a smash hit – sometimes literally – with his co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.
Latest figures show total equity for Freddie Flintoff Enterprises stood at £5.6million for the 12 months to June 2019 – which is a massive £1.1million jump on the previous year.
Minted Flintoff, 42, and McGuinness joined established motoring writer Harris on Top Gear in 2018.
Their on-screen rapport and laughfilled road trips have been a huge hit with fans of the BBC2 show for the past two seasons. They have been so successful that the show will move to BBC1 this year for the 29th series. On their first outing they drew an average of 3.9million viewers across the week, 1.5million more than Harris, Matt LeBlanc and Rory Reid in the previous series.
Dad-of-four Freddie, who has been married to Rachael for 15 years, won praise for his presenting and his bravery.
At the start of the last series, fearless Fred was in a red Rover Metro which plunged off a 500ft-high dam on a bungee rope attached to a crane.
He was strapped into the car, suspended high above the dam and, after an agonising wait, was dropped from the platform as amused pal Harris watched.
His co-host said: “He is fearless. His DNA is not like normal people’s. He’s not a normal human being, let’s face it.”
Asked why Flintoff took on the challenge rather than him or Paddy, 45-yearold Harris added: “Because we’re not f***ing stupid, are we?”
McGuinness, 46, declared: “When we get these ideas pitched, certain ideas we all go, ‘Oh great!’ and certain ideas we go ‘Fred, that’ll be right up your street’!”
The BBC is also lining up several other TV projects for Freddie including a highprofile documentary in which he goes on a personal journey looking at his battle with bulimia.