Richard Hammond‘s wife Mindy ended their marriage months ago, MailOnline understands.
The former Top Gear star, 55, had been desperately trying to save his 28-year marriage until very recently, but the couple publicly announced they were splitting for good on Thursday.
As part of an impending divorce, Mindy, 59, reportedly wants to keep the £7million Bollitree Castle in Herefordshire.
In the wake of their split, Richard was said to have been banished to his converted barn where he stored his motorbikes, but has now moved to a rented property in a nearby village where he runs his ‘Smallest Cog’ car-restoration garage.
Their shock split comes amid claims from insiders that Richard – who shares two daughters with Mindy, Isabella, 24, and Willow, 22 – has become increasingly harder to live with in recent years due to injuries sustained in two near-fatal car crashes.
Mindy previously warned Richard was on his ‘last chance’, eight years before the couple announced their marriage was over.
In 2006 he was hospitalised after crashing a Vampire Dragster at a speed in excess of two-hundred miles-per-hour and was put into a coma while filming a segment for Top Gear.
Eleven years later on the second season of The Grand Tour, Richard crashed a Rimac Concept One at a hill-climb in Switzerland. \
He rolled the car several times and fractured his knee.
An insider told the Mail: ‘Richard has been through an awful lot and the knock-on effect from the crashes has impacted his relationship.
‘It’s understandable given the sheer magnitude of the accidents and the impact caused both physically and mentally, he’s done so well to recover and get back to normal life.
‘But they have changed him, there’s no getting away from it, and his relationship with Mindy has been harmed during the fallout.’
Richard’s representatives declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.
Speaking in 2022, Richard outlined exactly how the crashes had impacted him, and sighted his short term memory loss as his biggest concern.