Richard Hammond tells of his 'tremendous grief' as he announces the death of his dad Alan

The Grand Tour star, aged 55, said he is feeling “tremendous grief” following the death of his father as he appeared in a bonus episode of his podcast alongside daughter Izzy.

The sad news comes just weeks after the star announced his separation from Mindy, his wife of 28 years.

Speaking on Who Are We Now, Hammon said: "I have to say quite early on that since we spoke to Professor Green – because that's this week's episode, but we recorded it a little while back – since then, we've lost my father, Izzy's grandfather, he died."

The father-and-daughter duo were talking to psychiatrist Dr T about grief for the extra episode.

Discussing the impact of losing his dad Alan, who was a was a legal executive and author, Hammond asked the doctor: "And so we are, probably, both of us, Iz, are undergoing change right now – is that changing us?"

Dr T talked the pair through what they were experiencing and Hammond commented: "For instance, I’ve noticed that since we lost my dad I don’t wander around daily in a cloud of . . . there was tremendous grief, of course there was, he was my dad, but it’s kind of in the background.

"And when it hits me is when I’m pottering about doing something often inconsequential, or thinking about something big, my brain has already formed the thought, ‘oh, I must tell dad’ and I only sort of get . . . You know when you’re turning a thought into language?

“So the thought is there, and then I form it into words so I can communicate to myself and to the world, and it gets as far as, ‘oh I must tell... oh,’ and it’s not a big crashing emotion, but it’s a definite sense, it’s a reminder, and that’s the brain doing what you just described."

Alan’s experiences as a legal executive in North Yorkshire became the inspiration for the stories in his first book, All’s Fair in Love and Law. He lived in Weston-under-Penyard, near Ross-on-Wye, with his wife - and Richard’s mum - Eileen. It is not known precisely when he died, how old he was, or what his cause of death was.

Richard was the eldest of Alan and Eileen’s sons; his younger brothers are Andrew, who is writer of the horror thriller teenage fiction series 'Crypt', and Nicholas.

Richard and Mindy, who share two daughters, Isabella (Izzy) and Willow, took to their joint X account on January 9 to reveal that they have split after 28 years together. They wrote: “A little update from us, this Christmas we were together as a family and this year we will still be a family but just structured a bit differently.

“Our marriage is coming to an end, but we’ve had an amazing 28 years together and two incredible daughters. We will always be in each other’s lives and are proud of the family we created.

“We won’t be commenting further and sincerely hope that our privacy and that of our children will be respected at this time. With Love, Richard and Mindy.”