Sherlock star Amanda Abbington has described her 'incredible' fiancé's positivity despite being paralysed for life after a near-fatal accident. Escapologist Jonathan Goodwin, a former Britain's Got Talent and America's Got Talent contestant, suffered extensive injuries when a stunt went wrong in October last year.
Just weeks before, Amanda and Jonathan had become entangled in a whirlwind romance, which saw the stuntman propose to her after just seven weeks of speaking over the phone. Jonathan flew out to Vienna, where Amanda was filming, after working in Hamburg, and popped the question during his first meeting with her.
Speaking to food critic Jay Rayner on his 'Out To Lunch' podcast, Amanda revealed the severity of her husband-to-be's injuries as a result of the extreme stunt going wrong. She said: "He was doing a stunt where there were two cars suspended, he was hanging upside down with a straightjacket on, they were supposed to release the cars just as he gets out of the straightjacket and falls onto an airbag.
"They misjudged it; they let the cars go, they let him go, and he smashed in between the two cars.
"They set on fire and the crashmat wasn’t moved so he fell 30 feet. He 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."
After meeting Amanda, Jonathan had confessed that he had been thinking about hanging up his straightjacket, which the accident then forced him to do. Jonathan spent some time in rehab, and is now wheelchair-bound for the foreseeable future and retired, according to Amanda.
The actress said: "He’s just been in rehab since October and he came out the day before we flew to Budapest together. He’s paralysed now - he’s in a wheelchair.
"He’s incredible. You would never believe for one moment that he’s been through that - he’s so positive and upbeat and so strong. His courage and his strength is something that I just aspire to be like - he’s just incredible.
"He’s so happy, just like a very happy positive human being. Just liquid sunshine completely, he’s amazing."
After coming out of a surgery which had a 50% survival rate, Jonathan told his fiancée that he would understand and respect her decision to leave if that's what she wanted. But Amanda said that thought 'never once occurred to her', and the couple are set to wed this summer.
She said: "He’s just the most beautiful human being I’ve ever met. We just have a blast you know we laugh all the time he’s writing, he’s very good at creating stuff he’s coming to terms with it beautifully, effortlessly. You sometimes forget that he’s in a wheelchair because he doesn’t complain about any of it."
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