The Grand Tour

Richard Hammond Talks Leaving His Family For The Grand Tour Filming

Richard Hammond spends a long time away from his family when filming for shows such as The Grand Tour, or his latest excapade, The Great Escapists. But how does he and his family deal with him being away for extended periods?

Richard Hamond is father to two daughters, Isabella and Willow, and is married to Mindy. They live together in Hereford, but there must be a strain on the family with him being away so much for filming. In an interview with The Sun, the ex-Top Gear presenter explains how they cope with him being away so much.

“I don’t come home and expect the household to fit around me,” he says.

“We have a rule which we ­implemented when Izzy was born, that the house runs without me when I’m away, and when I come home I try to meekly find a place in it.

“It has always been like that and it is a subtle thing, a nuanced thing, but it is critical.

“I don’t walk in, sit down at the table and say, ‘Right, family, I am back.’ It’s more like, ‘Right, what’s happening, what do we do?’ and I just fit in. Otherwise there would be a massive hole when I’m away and everyone would miss me, and I don’t want that.

“I don’t want them to wake up in the morning and think, ‘Oh no, he’s not here’, I want them to think at some point during the day, ‘It would be nice to see Daddy’, but not to the detriment of their daily life. That would be catastrophic.

“The four of us are incredibly close but they can function equally as well without me.”

Obviously, with the global pandemic affecting travel and therefore filming, Hammond explains that this has positively affected his home life with his family.

“I’ve been at home for the longest period of my life.

“So as a result I’ve done the school run most mornings. I’m always up first, then I kick the 17-year-old out of bed — that’s dangerous, I tell you — then take her to school and home again, walk the dogs.

“I think I’ve found a bigger place in the household. I think, like a lot of people, I will probably change the way I work as a result.”

Lots of families have been affected both positively and negatively, and us here at GTN have been thinking of everyone who are finding these times so hard.

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