He nearly lost his life when he was involved in a 320mph crash while filming a Top Gear stunt at York’s Elvington airfield back in 2006.
Richard Hammond, 53, was driving a Vampire jet car when one of the tyres blew, causing it to spin out of control and crash, flipping upside down and leaving him in a coma.
And talking on the Diary Of A CEO podcast, Richard has admitted hat he now fears he could have onset dementia as a result of the frontal lobe brain injury he endured.
He said: 'I worry about my memory because it's not brilliant. I can still read a script and deliver it but my long-term memory is not brilliant.
'I have to write things down and work hard to remember them sometimes. It might be the age, it might be the onset of something else, I worry about that. I do, I do.
'I should probably have a look and find out, because I do.'
Host Steven Bartlett asked him: 'Are you scared of finding out?'
He said: 'I am because it was a bleed on the front. It could mean there is an increased risk. I need to find out. I've been too scared to do it. I need to do it.
'Weirdly on the way here, I had to stop off for a medical for a production. They ask "Have you been involved in any accidents?" I'm like "Woooah! Can I have another piece of paper please?"
'I need to book myself in for one of those mid-life MOTs and check everything. I wanted to ask them to check there is nothing going awry up here [pointing to his head]. But I chickened out. Didn't.
'That means I probably need an MRI scan but at 53, your memory does start to get a bit... they call it lost key syndrome.
'I am quite forgetful, generally thinking about something else, the next thing and therefore I do drop the ball, I forget stuff a lot. That's just me. That's who I am.'
After the crash, which saw Richard coming 'remarkably close to death,' Richard admitted to suffering from depression.
He said: 'I have no recollection because there was the frontal lobe bleed. I was just decelerating upside down, using my head as a brake, which isn't good for you.
He added: 'Mindy. [his wife], was told by the doctors that a frontal brain lobe injury would possibly lead to me having a greater propensity for obsessive compulsion and depression and paranoia.
'Mindy was like, "You didn't meet him before the crash, did you?" which is quite funny to be fair. I think I did suffer a bit, I suffered all of those things to a degree.
'Some of them were really weird moments and I still get an echo of it.
'I remember having been institutionalized for a really long time in hospitals and in recovery... I would be coming into London to do something.
'I would open the wardrobe door and just look at all the shirts and just trying to work out.. it was too much. I found choice really difficult for quite a long time.'
He continued: 'Feeling your emotions derailed or interfered with because of a neurochemical imbalance, it's just chemicals and electricity.
'I was walking across the drive of my house and I felt this sudden welling, this surge of love in my chest and I thought, what's that?
'Eventually I identified it, I had walked past my old Land Rover, which I do love but only because I quite like it, but it had just triggered this absolutely... I thought blimey, it made me think.
'If emotions can be that profoundly affected by what was just a mix-up up of chemicals and electricity in my head, then I am more aware of things.
WHAT IS CTE?
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease that is caused by repeated hits to the head.
Over time, these hard impacts result in confusion, depression, dementia, explosiveness, aggression, and suicidal thoughts.
HOW DOES IT AFFECT BEHAVIOR?
Researchers are still unclear on how CTE affects behavior, but a growing swell of studies is offering some answers.
'Now, I don't listen to my emotions too closely if I am very very tired or if I have had a big night out with the boys the night before.
'If I have drink red wine the I do not tune it to see what I think about anything. It's irrelevant for a day. Those are the rules.
'I was angry for a while, Anger is a problem when recovering from a brain injury. I wanted a T-shirt that said on the front, "I am OK, stop asking" and on the back, "I am still poorly, you know".'
In 2017, Richard was involved in a second crash and was airlifted to hospital in Switzerland while filming Amazon's The Grand Tour.
The accident took place in the town of St Gallen in north-east Switzerland. Richard had to be pulled from the wreckage of a Rimac supercar worth £2m that later burst into flames.
And during his latest interview, Richard also spoke about health anxiety.
He said: 'It's not surprising that we don't want to face it. I do practice a bit of mindfulness and as you get older, talking about it makes it easier.
'You don't have to imagine a world without you in it because you wont be in it.'
And speaking about the aftermath of the crash, Richard said: ' I had very bad post traumatic amnesia for weeks
'Like a one-minute memory. Mindy my wife said I was the nicest I had ever been. Lovely apparently.
'I was perfectly happy reading the same newspaper every single day several times a day until Mindy took it away because she was sick of seeing me read it.
'If someone is in that confused state for whatever reason, if they are happy, they are happy. All you've got to do is cope to support them in that. It doesn't matter if they cant remember who you are. And I was.
Richard admits lacking in height - he is 5ft 7" - made him lack confidence in early life.
He said: 'Every compensatory measure that anybody who is diminutive in height has ever made, I've done. I exhibited all of those traits. I was just irritating, honestly.
'Because I was conscious of being smaller than everybody else and I wanted to be a bigger noise in the room, I wanted to disrupt and do stuff but I didn't want to be naughty.
I still hate being in trouble. It bothers me and it did then. I wouldn't have put up with me.
'I had a shame of being smaller. It's not something you crave. It genuinely doesn't bother me now but often when I meet people for the first time, if they've seen me on the tele, there's a moment and they are disappointed because they are expecting to meet something that you would put on a Christmas tree or put on the mantelpiece.
'But I'm 5ft 7"-ish so I am fairly average really. It's just that I consistently work with much taller people.'
He continued: 'As a kid, it did drive me on and it's bullying. I've never bleated on about it. But it is and it influenced me greatly. I overcompensated. I felt I had to.
'You take that into the room with you. Anything that makes you different, whatever that is, you take that in the room with you and it's kind of.. you have to compensate for it. Be funnier or be quicker, or be angrier, or noisier or naughtier.
'If that could be absorbed and didn't matter, you could just be yourself. It's one of the reasons I am a broadcaster now, for sure.'
He added: 'I've always said the worst people to deal with the trappings of success in media are by definition, the same ones that are the only ones driven enough to achieve it because they are compensating.
'That's why it's so dangerous. only the man or woman who is so desperate for it will have hung on and endured sacrificing friends, time and spare time and sometimes dignity and whatever else in order to get there and then therefore the least able to deal with it when whatever it is that they craved is given to them.
'But they would be better off solving the craving, removing the craving, than feeding it. That's my theory.'
Richard's interview comes after Freddie Flintoff was also involved in a car accident while filming Top Gear.
The former England cricket ace, 45, was airlifted to hospital with facial injuries and broken ribs after a collision at the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey on December 13.
Filming on the BBC show has been temporarily suspended as Freddie recuperates from his injuries.
BBC bosses are said to be expecting the results of an internal health and safety investigation in the coming days
A GLOBAL CONCERN
Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a range of progressive neurological disorders (those affecting the brain) which impact memory, thinking and behaviour.
There are many types of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common.
Some people may have a combination of different types of dementia.
Regardless of which type is diagnosed, each person will experience dementia in their own unique way.
Dementia is a global concern but it is most often seen in wealthier countries, where people are likely to live into very old age.
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED?
The Alzheimer's Society reports there are more than 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK today. This is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting between 50 and 75 per cent of those diagnosed.
In the US, it's estimated there are 5.5 million Alzheimer's sufferers. A similar percentage rise is expected in the coming years.
As a person’s age increases, so does the risk of them developing dementia.
Rates of diagnosis are improving but many people with dementia are thought to still be undiagnosed.
IS THERE A CURE?
Currently there is no cure for dementia.
But new drugs can slow down its progression and the earlier it is spotted, the more effective treatments can be.
Source: Alzheimer’s Society
Richard Hammond crashes a Vampire Dragster - 2006
Richard was left fighting for his life after crashing the jet-powered car while going at 288 mph as he tested the vehicle at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York. Hammond was completing a seventh and final run in the car when the front-right tyre blew-out and the dragster veered off the runway, rolled over, and Hammond was left with a traumatic head injury and was in a coma for two weeks. In the year following the crash the TV presenter returned to the show and spoke about the crash on the Jonathan Ross Show, but couldn't remember any of it because of his injuries.
Freddie Flintoff crashes a jet trike - 2019
In September, Freddie revealed he suffered a nasty escape after a high speed crash in a jet trike during filming. The cricket star, 41, insisted he was 'absolutely fine' after his jet trike careered off the road during a race at the Elvington Airfield near York. Freddie reportedly careered his high speed trike off the road as he filmed the high-speed race. Crew members rushed to Freddie - who was wearing a full motorcycling suit and helmet for the scenes - but he emerged with barely a scratch.
Paddy McGuinness' back axle comes off his Pontiac Firebird - 2020
In the latest series of Top Gear, Paddy embarked on the 'original' American Road Trip with Freddie and Chris Harris. He arrived in their start point of Peru with a Pontiac Firebird which didn't have a roof amongst several other problems. When the trio decided to test out their cars on a straight 1/4 mile stretch of road Paddy's car only got a few yards before the back end of the axle came apart entirely and he was forced to abandon the car.
Jeremy Clarkson flips over his Reliant Robin - 2010
In a now famous segment from Top Gear, former presenter Jeremy flipped over a Reliant Robin multiple times. The motorcar journalist was flipping it over to prove that the three-wheeled car could easily tip over. In his Sunday Times driving column Jeremy revealed that he had actually asked crew to tinker with the car 'so that the poor little thing rolled over every time I turned the steering wheel'.
