Richard Hammond suffers ‘tremendous grief’ over family loss just after split from wife

has admitted he’s been suffering from “tremendous grief” over the death of his dad, Alan Hammond. The sad news comes not long after and presenter confirmed his marriage split from wife Mindy Hammond after an “amazing 28 years together”, at the beginning of January.

The TV star addressed the loss of his father for the first time during the latest episode of his podcast, Who We Are Now, which he co-hosts with daughter Izzy Hammond.

While speaking to their guest, famous clinical psychiatrist Dr T, Richard shared: “I have to say quite early on that since we spoke to Professor Green – because that’s this week’s episode, but we recorded it a little while back – since then, we’ve lost my father, Izzy’s grandfather, he died.

“And so we are, probably, both of us, Iz, are undergoing change right now – is that changing us?”, he asked Dr T, who sympathetically replied: “Firstly, I’m sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing and it’s so helpful, I guess, to hear because it’s so relatable.

“Loss is something that we have experienced, are experiencing right now, or are going to experience in the near future, it’s a very common part of life,” to which Richard agreed.

Dr T continued: “And it’s painful because when we have someone, or something, in our life that we love, cherish, that’s important to us, that we’re used to, it forms part of the Neurocircuitry in our brain, but also our sense of self.”

The psychiatrist went on to explain that the experience of a bereavement changes your brain due to the frustration a loss can bring.

He revealed: “When you go through a bereavement, your brain goes through a highly motivated state, because you would think that you would crash, but what happens is that when something that means a lot to us is removed, we want it back.

“And it’s that frustrating moment of, ‘I want you to be back here, I want that person to be back here, I want that pet to be back here – and they’re not’.”

Dr T then shared information that Richard himself could relate to after going through grief. He explained to the father-daughter duo: “So, this level of frustration is painful to the extent that sometimes when our phone rings, we think it’s them, and when you’re thinking about them, you think, where are they right now?”.

Opening up on his own ordeal further, Richard mused in response: “That’s interesting, because it’s your brain doing stuff that you only experience through emotions and sensations that it triggers.

“For instance, I’ve noticed that since we lost my dad I don’t wander around daily in a cloud of… there was tremendous grief, of course there was, he was my dad, but it’s kind of in the background.

“And when it hits me is when I’m pottering about doing something often inconsequential, or thinking about something big, my brain has already formed the thought, ‘oh, I must tell dad’ and I only sort of get…

“You know when you’re turning a thought into language? So the thought is there, and then I form it into words so I can communicate to myself and to the world, and it gets as far as, ‘oh I must tell… oh,’ and it’s not a big crashing emotion, but it’s a definite sense, it’s a reminder, and that’s the brain doing what you just described.”

Richard has been through a great deal of change personally in the past few months, with the death of his dad and his split from his estranged wife Mindy, with whom he shares daughters Izzy, 24, and Willow, 22.

In a statement, Richard and Mindy shared on social media: “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. 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.”