Amanda Abbington is known for her three decade spanning career in acting which included huge roles in shows such as Mr Selfridge and Sherlock.
The star is also currently a participant in the 2023 series of the hit celebrity ballroom competition Strictly Come Dancing on BBC. But behind all her work, the star has a huge support system behind the scenes.
It wasn’t always the case, her relationship to Martin Freeman ended in heartbreak as the pair went their separate ways in 2016 after they first met in the year 2000. However she soon struck up a relationship with escapologist and daredevil Jonathan Goodwin.
READ MORE: Strictly’s Amanda Abbington unleashes explosive rant and rages over Giovanni rumours
The pair were online friends over social media for over a decade, and after her split from Martin they would call and text one another. In a story of love at first sight, they soon met in Vienna and within half an hour of clapping eyes on each other they were engaged.
(Image: PA)
Reflecting on the engagement, Jonathan told The Guardian in 2022: “By this time, I knew that I was going to ask her to marry me. I had been planning it already, even though we’d only been talking for a month.
“I cut the shape of the ring box out of the middle of a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets, so it fitted inside. Underneath the box it said: ‘Will you marry me?'”
(Image: INSTAGRAM)
At the time, Amanda spoke about the engagement on her Instagram as she said: “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,”
However, just two weeks later tragedy struck as he was involved in a horrific accident in October 2021 whilst undertaking rehearsals for America’s Got Talent : Extreme.
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
The act was supposed to see him escape from a straightjacket whilst suspended between two cars 30 feet in the air whilst upside down. However he was crushed as the cars were released two early and they caught on fire.
Injuries included third-degree burns, a broken spine, a severed spinal cord, two broken shoulder blades, both legs were shattered and he even lost a kidney. The stuntman was effectively left paralysed from the waist down and was only released from hospital five months later in February 2022.
(Image: PA)
Opening up about the accident on Jay Rayner’s Out To Lunch podcast, the Mr Selfridge actress said: “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.
Wheelchair-bound Jonathan appeared alongside Amanda, 51, on ITV’s Lorraine to discuss the impact that the accident had on their relationship. He revealed: “I said you have a get out of jail free card, if you want to walk away, I understand.” However it appears she is utterly devoted to her fiancee as he added: “She told me not to be so stupid.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
