TOP Gear star Richard Hammond is splitting up with his wife, Mindy, with whom he shares two daughters.
According to a source, The Sun reports that Mindy, a newspaper columnist, demanded the divorce saying she “wanted him gone”.
Richard with his wife Mindy and two daughtersCredit: Rex Features
Richard has presented Top Gear and The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson and James MayCredit: News Group UK Ltd
As a result, the Grand Tour presenter says that their family will be “structured differently”. Here’s what we know about his daughters.
Who are Richard Hammond’s daughters?
Richard‘s oldest daughter Izzy is his podcast partner-in-crime, as they both co-present Who Are We Now.
The hit series dives into men’s mental health issues and how to successfully raise children in the modern day.
Izzy was born in 2001, just before her parents got married a year later.
As of January 2025, she has over 60,000 followers on Instagram and was interviewed with her dad on ITV’s Lorraine.
So far, Izzy has not posted anything regarding her parents’ split.
The couple released a statement, saying: “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”.
In the past, the podcaster opened up about being four years old when her dad had a horror crash in 2006.
She said: “Us as a family as well, we spent a long time talking about his brain. We had to.
“It’s been sort of keeping an eye on it, his behaviour, how he’s thinking, how he’s acting, how he’s feeling…
“Because obviously he recovered in hospital, but when he was back home that was very much mainly my mum just keeping an eye on him, making sure he was okay and being very open about how he felt.”
Richard has shared several stories about his daughter’s sense of humour, including one occasion where she “humiliated” him and James May in KFC.
He spoke about the incident, which took place after Richard had left Top Gear with his co-presenters, on the Fueling Around podcast.
He said: “After we finished the show James had come over to stay with me for a few days.
“We’d gone to Kentucky Fried Chicken to get lunch for everyone with Izzy.
“We got to the front of the queue, put our order in, and James typically said: ‘Oh, oh, I’ll pay Hammond’ and I said ‘no, no mate, I’ll pay’ and he said ‘no, no, no I’ll pay.’
“And there was a pause, just when the whole restaurant had gone quiet, and Izzy said: ‘Well technically lads, I should pay as you haven’t got a job between you’.
“And the place detonated with laughter.”
Out of the limelight
Like Izzy, Willow, who was born in 2004, hasn’t commented on the situation.
She generally keeps out of the public eye more than her older sister, choosing not to appear on Who Are We Now.
However, she has nearly 15,000 followers on Instagram and often shares snaps with her family.
Richard shared that he believed both of his daughters had been approached to feature on ITV’s dating show Love Island.
He said that he doubted they would ever do the show, but acknowledged that they were both adults.
Journalist mum
Izzy and Willow’s mum is famous in her own right, just like their TV presenter dad.
Amanda “Mindy” Hammond is a journalist and columnist for The Express, who writes about her life.
She detailed the Hammond family’s experience during the Covid lock-down and even described how she gave their dog a “radical” hairdo.
The journalist also opened up about her battle to wake her husband from his coma, following his horror crash in 2006.
When he awoke, she quickly realised that his memory was not the same as it had been before.
Mindy told The Telegraph: “It was disconcerting when, early after the crash, Richard looked at me from his hospital bed and said, ‘You’re lovely, but you’re not my wife.’
“When I corrected him, he responded, ‘No, you’re not my wife, my wife is French’.
“Indeed, when he was allowed home five weeks later, it became clear that Richard’s memory loss was no short-term affliction.”
Richard recovered his memories of his wife, but fears the long-term impact of the crash.
He revealed that he worries that the crash may have led to memory conditions including dementia.
