Amanda Abbington said this week her escapologist fiancé Jonathan Goodwin nearly died twice after a dangerous stunt went wrong, leaving him paralysed for life.
The actress, 48, stayed by the 42-year-old's hospital bedside after he was critically injured when he was crushed between two cars which caught fire when he was performing a stunt for America's Got Talent: Extreme, last October.
Amanda first went public with her relationship with Jonathan back in October 2021, finding love with the daredevil 10 months after her four year romance with The Queen's Gambit star Jonjo O'Neill broke down.
The stuntman helped the Sherlock star, who was previously married to Martin Freeman but split in 2016, get back on her feet again, after feeling "fragile" following the breakdown of her relationship with Jonjo.
Jonathan and Amanda had a whirlwind romance at the start of the relationship, where they spent hours talking on the phone every day for seven weeks before he flew to Vienna to meet her in person for the first time.
Amanda had been friends with Jonathan on social media for more than 10 years because her son Joe thought his act was 'amazing'.
"We kind of had a mutual respect for each other", she said but had initially 'friend zoned' him because he was with his wife.
Amanda told Jay Rayner on his Out To Lunch podcast, they later spoke were she "said to him I've not had a great break-up and he said 'well my divorce has just come through'."
"I really liked him so I gave him my number and then the next day he said "we should talk" and we were on the phones for seven hours", she added.
The actress said within half an hour of meeting, the daredevil proposed to her- just weeks before his horrific accident.
Announcing their engagement, Amanda wrote at the time: "When you know, you know. I knew straight away. Within hours. My person is one of the kindest, sweetest, most amazing, incredible, talented, funny, brave, unstoppable, fearless and beautiful humans on the planet", after Jonathan rereferred to her as his fiancé.
However, just weeks later their happiness was shattered when Jonathan was performing a stunt where he would escape from a straight jacket while being hung upside down 30 feet in the air in between two suspended cars.
He missed the air mattress which was meant to break his fall and hit his head on the ground.
Detailing his life-changing injuries, Amanda said: "He fell 30 feet 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."
She added: "He’s paralysed now he’s in a wheelchair. 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."
Goodwin, who featured on the 2019 season of Britain’s Got Talent, has now retired from escapology.
Despite the life-altering injuries, Abbington explained he has remained "positive and upbeat and so strong".
"His courage and his strength is something that I just aspire to be like," she said.
The couple plan to marry this summer.
