Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington's daredevil fiancé has been left paralysed after a TV stunt went terribly wrong. Jonathan Goodwin from Pembrokeshire was reportedly crushed between two burning cars which were suspended some 70ft in the air.
The 42-year-old stuntman had also been hanging high above the ground whilst wearing a straitjacket from which he was meant to escape. He'd been rehearsing in Atlanta for an episode of America's Got Talent: Extreme last October - on which Simon Cowell is a judge - when he fell to the ground after bouncing off the bonnet of one of the cars.
The 2019 Britain's Got Talent contestant and 2020 America's Got Talent semi-finalist suffered a catalogue of injuries, including a severed spinal cord and third-degree burns. He was airlifted to hospital and had to spend months recovering.
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He was released from hospital in February and Abbington, 48, praised his courage as he continues on the long road to recovery. Speaking on Jay Rayner 's Out To Lunch podcast, she said: "He fell 30ft and lost a kidney, broke both shoulder blades, shattered both legs.
"Third degree burns, broke his spine and severed his spinal cord and nearly died. And then on the operating table he nearly died again."
Goodwin now uses a wheelchair and Abbington added: "Unless there's a kind of stem cell surgery, or that thing that Elon Musk is designing with the little chip, he'll be like that forever." She also revealed that her fiancé remains "positive, upbeat and so strong."
She said, "His courage and his strength is something that I just aspire to be like. He's just incredible, honestly, like so happy, just like a very happy, positive human being, just liquid sunshine."
Taking to Instagram, a defiant Goodwin explained, "I have a T11 spinal cord injury which means I'm paralysed from the waist down. It's likely a permanent sitch. If any of you want to race though, I'm pretty sure I can beat you #bringit."
The couple got together after Abbington split from her fellow Sherlock actor Martin Freeman and Goodwin had divorced his wife.
They initially chatted for hours on the phone, but then got engaged when he proposed within half-an-hour of meeting her for the first time in Vienna.
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