Richard Hammond’s daughter calls her dad an ‘idiot’ as she reflects on his terrifying crashes and admits ‘he was never really there growing up’ as presenter announces split from wife of 28 years

Richard Hammond’s daughter Izzy has admitted her father is an ‘idiot’ as she reflected on the nature of his work and his terrifying crashes over the years.

The content creator, 24, confessed that despite her father not being around much during her childhood, some of her best memories were with him.

Joking about messing around in cars with the host, she confessed on a recent podcast: ‘WI have driven around roundabouts with the handbrake on before. Sorry, I know this is incredibly illegal. Maybe you should delete that. He’s an idiot’.

Appears on Ben Fowler’s Road To Success podcast Just days before news of Richard and his wife Mindy’s divorce, the host asked Izzy, “Would you call him a little idiot or a daredevil?” Where’s the line?’

“Idiot,” she confirmed before explaining, “He has that thing that drivers have where they’re just not afraid of. Everyone’s like, ‘Okay, I know where the line is,’ but he doesn’t have one.”

“He would really just go and go and go.”

In 2006, the presenter, now 55, suffered life-threatening head injuries and was left in a coma after a high-speed crash while filming for the hit BBC show.

Later in 2017, Mindy publicly warned her husband that he would have to quit TV if he had another serious crash – after he was involved in a second high-speed crash.

Discussing her dad not always being there for her and her sister Willow, 22, she added: “I always think it must be frustrating for my mom because probably some of my happiest memories are ironically those of my dad because he wasn’t there. so much so because he was filming.

“He wasn’t around much and that’s all I really knew growing up.”

She explained that some business trips meant he was away for more than a month, adding: ‘I mean, I’m not. This sounds like I had a terrible childhood, which in reality I didn’t have at all.

“I think my parents were very good at navigating it because they had no idea what was going to happen.

“But they were very good at giving us information about drip feeding, so we knew a little bit about what he was doing, but not enough to worry because they usually did stupid things that we really shouldn’t know about.”

Mindy previously said she warned Richard about his reckless behavior, telling him, “I said three strikes and you’re out.” You’ve had two tries.’

Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, Mindy said: “He has one every ten years so I’ve marked the next one in my diary.”

Richard has repeatedly apologized to his wife and two daughters for causing them further trauma.

Mindy said, “I have teenage daughters and a nine-year-old husband.”

Meanwhile, so does Izzy opened up about the impact of her father’s terrifying Top Gear crash when she explained that he could “barely function, let alone be a father.”

Izzy was only seven years old at the time, but in a recent podcast, released just days before Richard and his wife Mindy announced their divorce, she spoke candidly about how the incident affected the family and left him ‘doolly’.

She explained: ‘Obviously the crash has affected us all in different ways.

“I think I was seven and it was more the recovery. I think that was really the thing that affected us as a family because he was absolutely down for months.

“He just wasn’t into it at all and so I just have a lot of gaps in my memory of him as a father because for a long time he was barely human, like he could barely function and was trying to relearn how to be human. human being, let alone a father figure.’

Mindy flew to her husband’s bedside at the time after he fled the Swiss hill after Richard had been in a coma for two weeks following the accident.

On Friday, MailOnline announced that Richard’s wife Mindy ended their marriage months ago.

The former Top Gear star was until recently desperately trying to save his 28-year marriage, but the couple publicly announced on Thursday that they were splitting for good.

Their shock split comes amid claims from insiders that living with Richard has become increasingly difficult in recent years due to injuries sustained in two near-fatal car crashes.

Mindy previously warned that Richard was on his ‘last chance’, eight years before the couple announced their marriage was over.

An insider told the Mail: ‘Richard has been through an awful lot and the knock-on effect of the crashes has affected his relationship.

‘It is understandable, given the enormity of the accidents and the impact caused both physically and mentally, that he has done so well to recover and return to normal life.

“But they changed him, there’s no way around it, and his relationship with Mindy has been damaged in the fallout.”

Richard’s representatives declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.

As part of a pending divorce, Mindy, 59, reportedly wants to keep the £7million Bollitere Castle in Herefordshire.

In the aftermath of their split, Richard is said to have been banished to his converted shed where he kept his motorbikes, but has now moved to a rented property in a nearby village where he runs his ‘Smallest Cog’ car restoration garage.

Richard married Mindy in 2002 after they first met in 1995, with the presenter previously saying there was an instant attraction between them.