Richard Hammond has opened up on his divorce from his wife of 28 years Amanda Etheridge in a new Amazon Prime special The Not Very Grand Tour. The 55-year-old, who shares two children with his ex who goes by Mindy, narrates and introduces portions of the episode alongside James May. One segment sees him pithily comment on his current situation. "In the 1800s, the average American travelled 50 metres a day. Now, the average person travels 50 kilometres a day, and some cover a lot more.
"If we travel more, we see more, we learn more. And we don’t have to marry whoever lives next door, which is my case," he said before facing the camera with a pained expression, as James May interjected to move things along saying: "Anyway!" Despite his quip, Mindy was not Richard's neighbour when they met. they actually first encountered each other at a London PR firm in 1995. "In an instant, I fell in love with her and realised I had met my soul-mate and best friend for life," he wrote in his 2006 autobiography On The Edge: My Story.
The pair tied the knot in 2002 and share two daughters, Isabella and Willow. They announced their divorce in January this year in a statement on social media.
The couple said: "A little update from us; this Christmas we were together as a family and this year we will still be a family but just structured a bit differently.
"Our marriage is coming to end, but we’ve had an amazing 28 years together and two incredible daughters.
"We will always be in each other’s lives and are proud of the family we created," it continued.
"We won’t be commenting further and sincerely hope that our privacy and that of our children will be respected at this time. With love, Richard and Mindy."
The pair had lived together in the £7million Bollitree Castle in Hertfordshire, where Hammond also converted a listed barn into a “man cave”.
Richard is now renting a property in a nearby village, runs his car restoration garage, Smallest Cog.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that Mindy intends to keep the Herefordshire castle as part of the divorce proceedings.
