Richard Hammond announced his separation from his wife Mindy (Image: Getty)
great recently – also known as “Mindy” – after she allegedly declared she “wanted him gone”.
It is thought that she would like to keep their luxury Herefordshire estate, known as Bollitree Castle, as part of the divorce settlement.
A source published in claimed that it was Mindy’s request that Richard should move out, and that his attempts to revive their relationship failed.
They claimed: “Richard is very upset about all this. It seems he has tried hard to rekindle the relationship but to no avail. There is no speculation that any third party is involved.”
Richard, whose net worth is estimated at around £35 million, shares two grown-up children with Mindy, and his eldest – 24-year-old Izzy – still lives on site at the family estate.
:
The couple were married for 23 years before they went their separate ways (Image: Getty)
She works with her famous dad filming episodes of their , while she also helps out with tasks at the supercar-obsessed celeb’s garage.
Richard addressed the speculation via a post on his X account, confirming that after 28 years in a relationship – and 23 of those in a marriage – he and Mindy have decided to go their separate ways.
It read: “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.”
He concluded: “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.”
Don’t miss… [TOP GEAR]
They share two adult daughters together (Image: Getty)
The declaration follows a passionate ode Richard made to his wife in his autobiography On The Edge, when he described her as his “soulmate”.
“In an instant, I fell in love with her and realised I had met my soul-mate and best friend for life,” he exclaimed of their first ever meeting back in 1995.
Their Bollitree Castle home has belonged to the family for the past 17 years and boasts a swimming pool and 20 acres of land. It is believed to be of enormous sentimental value to daughter Izzy, while her younger sister Willow also rents a house nearby.
star has come a long way since his 2006 brain injury, after he survived a 288mph crash – but he didn’t initially recognise Mindy when he woke up.
In the years that followed, he suffered with memory loss, depression and an inability to “connect emotionally”. But that didn’t stop him from getting behind the wheel again, with the presenter suffering another crash in 2017, from which he escaped with just a fractured knee.