Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has revealed he is "scared to death" to undergo a brain scan for dementia, as he opened up about the traumatic events of the past two years, including his divorce and the loss of his father.
Hammond, 56, appeared on the High Performance podcast this week to discuss the last couple of years, which have seen him deal with a number of traumatic experiences. He separated from his wife of 23 years, Amanda "Mindy" Hammond, in January 2025, and has since found happiness with new partner, therapist Keira "Kiki" Glen.
For a while, he lived in a rented farmhouse after leaving his castle home, Bollitree Castle, near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
Loss and a New Beginning
Hammond said: "In the last two years I lost my father, my dog, my marriage, my house, most of the chunk of the money I earned from The Grand Tour."
"And I don't give a s***. The happiest I've been in years was living in a rented cottage, my divorce cottage," he added. "I loved it. I rang a mate of mine who runs a big estate. Sometimes a chap needs to no longer live where he lives quite suddenly. He owns this huge estate and he said, 'I've got just the place for you.'"
He added: "He rented me this beautiful tiny little farmhouse called Camp Farm, which caused some considerable amusement amongst my friends, obviously."
Living in a far more humble setting was far more to his liking, he quickly learned. "When friends came over, they came over to see me. Not the house, not the collection of cars – because that'd all gone," he told Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes.
"I would cook a Sunday roast for like 14 of us and have to bring the outside table in and move all the furniture to get everyone in. And it was just, I loved it. Absolutely adored it. Very, very happy times."
Family and a Daughter's Crash
The 56-year-old now lives in a six-bedroom Georgian manor house in Llanwenarth. He shares two daughters, Izzy, 26, and Willow, 23, with Mindy. Izzy co-hosts the podcast Who We Are Now with her father and has shown an interest in motorsport, becoming involved in Formula E, where she recently crashed during an influencer event in Jeddah.
Hammond said to the Metro: "It's a little uncomfortable because I know from personal experience that things can and do go wrong." Izzy crashed into a concrete barrier during the event, though she escaped uninjured.
Hammond endured his own serious accident in 2006 when he crashed a jet-powered car travelling at 320mph during a Top Gear segment. He was placed in a medically induced coma for two weeks.
Fear of Dementia
He has talked about his recovery a number of times over the years but admitted to Humphreys that he does worry about dementia in future years. "The brain injury is with me forever and I do worry about early onset dementia," he added on the podcast. "I very much hope not but it's entirely possible it could."
Humphreys asked: "You can have scans for that, have you had scans for that?" Hammond replied: "No, I'm scared to death to do it. But I absolutely should. I have honestly been too scared. Because I do lose stuff a lot, I do forget stuff, but that's probably because I'm 56 and not concentrating. But I should."
Hammond added: "I'm bad enough when I go for my annual MOT, where you go and get mauled by a doctor. I don't like getting the results from that. I wouldn't like the results from a brain scan. I wouldn't want to know that's what was coming, would I? To be fair, if it's happening, you're less aware, but it's a bloody struggle. Some people are lucky, and they're happy.
"I'm just selfishly scared [of the scan]. And my daughters, I don't want to let them down. It's going to be primarily difficult for them. I'd have to tell them. But maybe I should."
