- Freddie Flintoff was involved in a serious car crash filming Top Gear in 2022
- He was left with severe facial injuries and several broken ribs after the incident
Andrew Flintoff has opened up on his relationship with former Top Gear co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris more than two years after his near-fatal car crash in December 2022.
The former England cricket star turned television presenter was left with horrific injuries after the open-top car he was testing on the BBC motoring show flipped over and slipped along the track at the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey.
The vehicle had no airbags and the crash left Flintoff with severe facial injuries and several broken ribs.
Flintoff - also known by his nickname Freddie - didn't leave his house for around six to seven months as the public were initially kept in the dark over how seriously he had been injured after he was dragged along the track, face down, for 50 metres.
But, in a new Disney+ documentary called 'Flintoff', which takes an intimate and unprecedented look into 47-year-old's life, vivid details of the crash and his subsequent recovery is laid bare.
The film, by BAFTA-award winning director John Dower, is the first time the cricketer has spoken in unfiltered detail about the accident in the Morgan Super 3 sports car.
And, within the 98 minute programme, Flintoff revealed that he has barely spoken to McGuiness and Harris, despite having an extremely close bond with the pair while on the show.
Andrew Flintoff opened up on his relationship with Top Gear co-stars Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris in a new documentary
Flintoff (pictured in 2018) revealed he has barely spoken to McGuiness or Chris Harris
'We've been in contact,' he said. 'When I saw Chris we hugged each other, he got upset and I got a little bit upset.
'I feel bad I haven't been more in contact with him and Paddy. I think there were some comments that I've not spoken with Paddy for a while and part of it is for myself a little bit.
'I hate the word triggering... but I'm worried about that. It's also something that has stopped because of what's happened to me. Their careers have been halted as well.
'So I feel bad for them and also it's like what happened gets dragged up enough in my own head without adding to that (by seeing them).'
The documentary, which premiered in London earlier this week, features an unflinching look at Flintoff's injuries following the crash.
'I thought I was dead, because I was conscious but I couldn't see anything,' he said - realising seconds later his hat had fallen over his eyes.
But as he lifted it up, he looked down to see blood - and was terrified that he no longer had a face.
'I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death,' he said.
Flintoff - one of England's finest all-rounders - credits his fast reactions as a cricketer as the reason he is still alive today.
As the Morgan Super 3 went over, he said time seemed to slow, and he was able to move his head so his face took the impact, rather than his neck or the top of his head.
'As it started going over, I looked at the ground and I knew, if I get hit here on the side [of the head] then I'll break my neck, or if I get hit on the temple I'm dead. The best chance is to go face down,' he recalled.
While the open-top three-wheeler has a top speed of 130mph, Flintoff was doing less than 50mph when the car overturned.
Unaired footage of the aftermath feature in the cricketing legend's Disney+ documentary
Flintoff was left with serious facial injuries and several broken ribs after a near-fatal car crash when he was filming BBC motoring show Top Gear alongside McGuinness in December 2022
Flintoff revealed that keeping his distance from McGuiness was partly for his own recovery
The new Disney+ documentary gives vivid details of the crash and his subsequent recovery
'I got dragged out, and the car went over, and I went over the back of the car, and then pulled face down on the runway about 50m underneath the car - and then I hit the grass and then flipped back,' he recalled.
During the eye-opening documentary, Flintoff, who is one of England's greatest ever cricketers and a star who transcended sport, also spoke candidly about his battle to recover from the injuries.
Surgeon Mr Jahrad Haq, who appeared on the documentary, explained the damage Flintoff had suffered was in the top five facial traumas he had seen in more than 20 years of operating.
Several graphic images of Flintoff's injuries are displayed during the programme. His wounds, described as 'very complex' by Mr Haq, included hard and soft tissue injuries to his nose, broken and lost teeth and fractures in his upper jaw bone.
And Flintoff heartbreakingly revealed that at points he had wished he hadn't survived the crash given the impact it had on him.
'It's hard,' he said. 'After the accident I didn't think I had it in me to get through. This sounds awful but part of me wishes I had been killed and wishes I had died.
'I didn't want to kill myself but I was just not wishing, but I was thinking this would've been so much easier.
'Now I try to take the attitude the sun will come up tomorrow and my kids will still give me a hug,' he added. 'And I'm probably in a better place now.'
The programme also included coverage of Flintoff's return to public life and his ability to deal with the struggles he has faced - while claiming the world of TV, as in sport, treated him like 'a piece of meat.'
He recalled of filming Top Gear: 'Everybody wants more, everybody wants that thing that nobody has seen before, everyone wants that bigger stunt.
'In some ways it’s, "Let’s have that near miss, because then that’ll get viewers". Everything is about viewers. Always, always.'
In one of the most affecting moments of the film, Flintoff describes how his youngest son, then three-and-a-half, was afraid to come near him because his face was so damaged
Flintoff is seen looking at the reconstructive work in a mirror in a scene from the documentary
Flintoff has had to undergo extensive surgeries to his teeth and face since the accident
Flintoff, McGuinness and Harris had taken part in a series high-octane stunts during their three-year stint in the show - with Freddie usually at the forefront of the most adrenaline-pumping fears.
Among the stunts he performed was a car bungee jump in a Rover 100, which was launched from the top of a 500ft dam in Switzerland.
Five years ago, Flintoff rode a 124mph trike that shot off into grassland as he filmed a drag race against a car.
He escaped without injury, telling MailOnline at the time: 'I go to great lengths to make sure I do well in Top Gear drag races, but on this occasion I went a few lengths too far.'
Flintoff's view on the pursuit of bigger and better stunts, damn the consequences, is one shared by Chris Harris, his Top Gear co-star and, out of the trio, the only one with extensive experience of performance car driving.
Speaking to podcaster Joe Rogan last year, the motoring journalist said he had warned the BBC three months before the accident that there could be a 'serious injury' or 'fatality'.
He said: 'What was never spoken about was that three months before the accident, I'd gone to the BBC and said, 'Unless you change something, someone's going to die on this show'.
'So I went to them, I went to the BBC and I told them of my concerns from what I'd seen - as the most experienced driver on the show by a mile.'
While McGuinness and Flintoff were 'brilliant entertainers', he said they 'didn't have the experience I had in cars'.
In March 2023, the BBC apologised to Flintoff for his injuries after a report was compiled by health and safety experts both inside and outside of the corporation.
It paid compensation in October that year. The report was not published publicly.
It then put Top Gear on ice a month later - seemingly indefinitely - amid the 'exceptional circumstances' of the crash.
The broadcaster said then that there would be 'more to say in the near future' - but no further announcement on Top Gear has ever come.
His co-stars filmed a series, Paddy and Chris: Road Tripping, that saw them drive across Sweden, Greece and Switzerland.
But the show was of a very different calibre to Top Gear, as they explored how to age gracefully as men approaching 50.
Flintoff joined comedian Paddy McGuinness and car journalist Chris Harris to become a permanent presenting trio on Top Gear after the show suffered years of turmoil
The trio won over viewers with their on-screen chemistry and proclivity for high-octane stunts
Flintoff re-emerged in public life when he began working with England in September 2023
Flintoff did reveal that he still struggles with nightmares about the crash along with PTSD and anxiety, but he opened up on the positive impact that returning to cricket has had on his well being.
In 2023, he joined England's coaching staff as a mentor for an ODI series against New Zealand.
Since then, he has worked in a variety of roles with the England's white-ball team, spent time with England Under 19s side, while he is also head coach of Northern Superchargers in The Hundred.
He was then appointed as boss of England Lions, effectively England's second team, last September, and he has been widely praised for his impact by several players.
And his wife Rachael Wools Flintoff, who appears prominently in the documentary, added: 'I do think cricket saved him. It gave him a reason for being again.'
Flintoff confessed that he had wondered whether he would ever return to presenting and mentoring - but did so last year with a new series of Field of Dreams, alongside his unlikely group of young cricketers from his hometown of Preston.
He also hosted a one-off revival special of game show Bullseye on ITV last Christmas.
The Mail's TV critic, Christopher Stephens, has given Flintoff five stars.
Flintoff is available exclusively on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland from Friday, April 25.
