Freddie Flintoff's wife has revealed the promise she made their children keep after his crash on the Top Gear track.
A new documentary set to land on Disney+ tomorrow (25 April) delves into the former England star's recovery from the devastating accident he was involved in while shooting the much-loved series back in December 2022.
What had been set up as a regular track day turned into tragedy when Freddie's three-wheeled car overturned, leaving him with life-changing injuries after being dragged along the track for 50 metres.
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"My biggest fear was, I didn’t think I had a face," Freddie admits in the film. "I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death."
He had to be airlifted to St George's hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery to deal with the extensive and 'very complicated' trauma he'd suffered.
Initially, his wife, Rachael, was told that it wasn't that serious, perhaps he was just missing a few teeth.
“I got a phone call. Andy's been in an accident, in Top Gear, but we don't have much information," she recalls in the doc.
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"I think they might take him to the nearest hospital, but it sounds like it's just his teeth or something. I think everything's fine.
"I put the phone down, and I didn't think much of it to begin with. It just kind of escalated very quick."
She adds: "I wasn't getting any information. I didn't know how he was injured, and I just started just grabbing all my stuff, and just thought ‘I'm just gonna head to London, and then hopefully someone will tell me where he is.'”
It was only after she drove down to London to see him that the true extent of Freddie's injuries quickly became clear.
She says: “When I did see him, I walked in the room, and he was just in the bed, and he was bandaged up. Like his eyes, I’ve never seen someone so scared in their eyes.
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"And he just stared at me, and I just think he was looking at me to know how bad he was.
"So to be fair, I totally pulled myself together, and I just didn't cry. I didn't, I just said, ‘It's fine. You're gonna be OK. I can't believe how amazing you look.'"
Rachael then spoke to their children about what had happened, and made them all make a promise to be there for him.
She recalls: “Before we got home, I did call the kids, and I did say to them, ‘You've just got to be as strong as you've ever been. Your dad does look different at the moment. It's gonna get better, but I don't want you to look shocked and horrified, because that's gonna knock him.’
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“And that was hard, but Andy doesn't know I've ever done that. I was so grateful to all those people, I still had a husband, the kids still had their dad.”
At the time, the crash was front page news, with the world scrambling to work out what had actually happened.
In the days and weeks that passed after the accident, Freddie retreated to the safety of his Cheshire home, pulling away from his celebrity life and his co-hosts, Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.
And Flintoff admits that it also took its toll on his kids, with his young child actually scared of him.
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Speaking in the new doc, he says: "One of the real frustrations, and this really hurt me, was the speculation. That’s why I’m doing this now, you know, just get it out there, what actually happened.
“I’ve lived under the radar for seven months, only time I’m getting out is for medical stuff, and what I’ve done, I suppose, in this house, is become safe and be scared to step outside of it.
“You want to be there for the kids and you don’t want to miss stuff, you know, but unfortunately I’ve got four of them. I spent all this time with a three-and-a-half-year-old, he wouldn’t come near me, I think it frightened him, my face, frightening me. That was heartbreaking.
“I’ve got PTSD and I get anxious, for periods of time I just find myself crying for no particular reason.”
Flintoff will be available to stream on Disney+ from tomorrow (25 April).
Topics: Disney Plus, Documentaries, Freddie Flintoff, TV and Film, Top Gear, UK News
Dominic Smithers