Pembrokeshire escapologist Jonathan Goodwin has been left paralysed by a stunt that went wrong during his rehearsal on America's Got Talent: Extreme in October. His fiancée Amanda Abbington - the Sherlock actress - has also revealed that 42-year-old Goodwin was crushed between two suspended cars after they had caught fire.
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 supposed to supposed to escape a straight jacket while upside down 30ft in the air in between two suspended cars. Instead, he became crushed between them as they caught on fire
Speaking on Jay Rayner's Out To Lunch podcast, Abbington 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, 48, 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 and upbeat and so strong", while declaring: "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. He's amazing."
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.
Before undergoing surgery after his accident and being told that he had a 50 per cent chance of surviving it, the Welsh stuntman sent Abbington a voice message declaring his love for her and thanking her for the previous few months they had spent together. They now plan to tie the knot this summer.
Goodwin was no stranger to the small screen even before he found fame on Simon Cowell's talent shows. He has also featured on the Discovery Channel's One Way Out and How Not to Become Shark Bait as well as Channel 4's Balls of Steel and the Jonathan Ross Show. In 2012, meanwhile, he was given his own stunt series The Incredible Mr Goodwin, on UKTV's Watch channel.
During the stunt that ended so badly, Jonathan was suspended 70ft in the air between two cars and was secured in a straightjacket. He was supposed to free himself and land on an air mattress below before the cars collided but something went wrong and the cars burst into flames on impact where Jonathan fell and missed the mattress all together and landed on the ground and was airlifted to hospital.
In a post on social media Jonathan said he had 'dodged the worst' but had a 'long road to recovery' ahead of him.
He wrote on Instagram: 'To death I say nananana boo boo. 'I have been to the very brink and dodged the worst that a human being can, without fear… because I was protected by love.
'Love is all you need, so make sure you get some, cos its good s***. 'There is a long road to recovery and that won't look like what it did… I may leave the daft s*** alone for a while, but I have a lot left to do in this world. Maybe we can make something good together?'
The Pembrokeshire reality star has performed other similarly death-defying stunts on TV before. In 2013 he wore a straitjacket and dangled from a blazing rope over the River Thames in London in his TV series The Incredible Mr Goodwin.
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