Freddie Flintoff's heartbreak over his face 'frightening' his son after Top Gear crash

Yahoo

25-04-2025

Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff shared his "heartbreak" over his youngest son Preston being "frightened" by his changed face after the Top Gear crash.
The cricketer, 47, sustained serious facial injuries in a high-speed crash while filming the BBC motoring show in December 2022. Now the sportsman has reflected on the impact it has had on him, his wife Rachel Wools and their four children: Holly, Corey, Rocky and Preston.
Speaking in the Disney+ documentary Flintoff, the presenter has shared his haunting experience of reliving a "movie" of the Top Gear accident and how he has slowly rebuilt his life.
The northerner made the brave decision to open the documentary with his anxieties about his appearance following reconstructive surgery. In a piece to camera, he said: "Winds me up a bit [that the surgeon says it's the best he's seen Freddie]. Because I don't think I'm ever going to be happy with it. Both amazing [the surgeons]. I'm appreciative of it. But they'll never give me what I had back. I wasn't that happy with it then but it wasn't too bad was it?"
In one devastating moment, Flintoff later detailed the "heartbreak" he felt when his three and a half year old son Preston "wouldn't come near" him after the accident. "I think it frightened him, my face," he told the camera.
Filming seven months after the crash in the comfort of his home, he said: "One of the real frustrations was the speculations. That's why I'm doing this now. Just getting it out there what actually happened."
He added: "I've lived under the radar for seven months. Only time I'm getting out is for medical stuff. What I've done I suppose in this house is become safe. I've become scared to step outside of it.
"You want to be there for the kids and you don't want to miss stuff — fortunately got four of them. I've spent all this time with a three and a half year old. He wouldn't come near me, I think it frightened him, my face, [it] frightened me, that was heartbreaking."
Flintoff said it only takes a "slight reminder" — even a glimpse in the mirror — for all the memories to coming flooding back about what happened at the Dunsfold Aerodrome.
Stepping in front of the camera, his wife Rachael Wools gave her side of the story for the first time. The mum shared the private conversation she had with their children — something she has never talked to her husband about — before Flintoff came home from hospital.
"Before I got home, I did call the kids, I did say to them you've got to be as strong as you've ever been," she said. "Your dad does look different at the moment. It's going to get better. I don't want you to look shocked and horrified because that's going to knock him. That was hard."
"Andrew doesn't know I've ever done that," his wife confessed. "I'm so grateful to all those people. I still had a husband, the kids still had their dad. I'm very aware that there are other people going through far worse things without the help we've had."
The initial facial surgery took five hours. Wools didn't cry when she saw her husband the first time. "I've never seen someone so scared in those eyes," she remembered. "He was looking at me. To know how bad he was. I totally pulled myself together. I didn't cry."
Instead she told him: "I can't believe how amazing you look."
Mr Jahrad Haq was the Oral & Maxillofacial surgeon at St George's hospital who was on call the day Flintoff had the crash in December 2022.
The surgeon detailed the extent of the former Top Gear presenter's "very complex" facial injuries.
"For past 20 years of seeing maxillofacial trauma I'd put in the top five," he said. "He had a mixture of hard tissue and soft tissues injuries. Broken teeth, lost teeth. Elements of the upper jawbone fractured and displaced. It's very unusual that you lose soft tissue, that you lose skin. He lost a significant portion of his upper lip, underlying muscle, his lower lip."
The surgeon also compared rebuilding a face to a "jigsaw puzzle". "Almost always the pieces are there," he said. "In Andrew's case, they weren't."
Now, Flintoff has revealed he has been able to move on with his life. He told the cameras: "I try to take the attitude, you know what, the sun will come up tomorrow, my kids will still give me a hug. I'm probably in a better place now."
His wife hailed cricket for saving her husband's life.
Watch Flintoff on Disney+ from Friday 25 April.