Top Gear star Hammond forgot he was married

TOP Gear star Richard Hammond forgot he was married in the aftermath of his top-speed crash — and tried to chat up his own wife.

The presenter, 37, said he thought his real wife was French.

He said: “I didn’t forget Mindy, I fancied her — thank God — I attempted to chat her up.”

Mindy, who has co-written Hammond’s book On The Edge: My Story, which documents life before and after the crash, said: “He didn’t believe we were married.

“He said: ‘You’re lovely, but I’ve got to stop talking to you because I’ve got to go back to my wife, she’s French’.”

Hammond says of his recovery: “It was a big event, it’s a long old journey.

“You get to the end of each week and realise you weren’t actually better, and it goes on and on. Whole periods have just gone. I had a 22-second memory, very confusing for weeks (but) I can daydream now, it’s all fixed.

“It was frightening, a real lesson for me. Damage can mend. It’s a big bowl of porridge that revives itself if you’re very lucky... which I was.”

Hammond was left fighting for his life after a 507kph smash in a rocket-powered car last year.