Escapologist Jonathan Goodwin, 42, has been left paralysed after an accident, his fiancée Amanda Abbington has said.
The Sherlock actress said he nearly died twice after last year’s accident during rehearsals for America’s Got Talent: Extreme.
She said the stunt ace, who appeared in the 2019 season of Britain’s Got Talent, now uses a wheelchair.
He was supposed to escape a strait jacket while upside down 30ft in the air in between two suspended cars.
Instead, Mr Goodwin became crushed between them as they caught on fire.
Ms Abbington, 48, told Jay Rayner’s Out To Lunch podcast: “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.”
“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 said.
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Mr Goodwin, originally from Pembrokeshire, has remained “positive and upbeat, and so strong,” she added.
“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 actress said the stuntman sent a voice note before his surgery to say there was a 50% chance he would not make it.
He told her he loved her and thanked her for the past few months of his life with her.
The couple were initially friends on social media for about 10 years. Abbington followed him as her son Joe thought his act was “amazing”.
She said they connected after she split from fellow Sherlock actor Martin Freeman and he had divorced his wife.
At first, Ms Abbington said, they spent hours chatting on the phone each day before he flew to Vienna to meet her for the first time.
Within 30 minutes, Mr Goodwin proposed. The couple plan to marry this summer.
Source: BBC
