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Amanda Abbington’s fiancé Jonathan Goodwin has shared an incredible development after nearly being killed in a fireball stunt two years ago.
The daredevil, who rose to fame on Britain’s Got Talent in 2019, suffered life-changing injuries during rehearsals for AGT Extreme in October 2021.
Jonathan, who is engaged to the Sherlock star and recent Strictly contestant, was left in a wheelchair after performing a stunt that was set to see him hang upside down 30 feet in the air between two suspended cars and escape from a straitjacket.
However, the cars were released too early, and he was crushed between them as they caught on fire.
He was left with a dislocated spinal cord, the loss of a kidney, and third-degree burns, as well as fractured ribs and leg.
The accident left him paralysed from the waist down.
Jonathan Goodwin has been able to walk with the assistance of an exoskeleton (Picture: Jonathan Goodwin/ Instagram/ REX/ Getty)
But, this week, Jonathan had a miraculous breakthrough with the assistance of ground-breaking technology.
Posting a video walking on a treadmill, Jonathan was held up by a harness while wearing robotic machinery on his legs and being assisted by others as he took several steps.
He captioned the post: ‘I tried HAL by cyberdine industries. It is an exoskeleton which detects signals in the legs to allow the user to take steps. This shouldn’t work for me, but amazingly I was able to control it to engage!’
As he explained, the Hybrid Assistive Limb detects signals in the legs in order to aid walking.
‘As someone with a complete spinal injury, this shouldn’t work for me…and yet,’ he wrote.
Actress Amanda was there to support him, sharing her own video and describing it as a ‘very very emotional and inspiring experience to watch and be part of’.
The retired daredevil nearly died after a stunt went wrong two years ago (Picture: Dymond/ Thames/ Syco/ REX/ Shutterstock)
She wrote: ‘So unbelievably proud of the ever wonderful and truly amazing Jonathan Goodwin who, again, went way beyond what was thought possible. Love this man so very much.’
Amanda had previously told the Out to Lunch podcast with Jay Rayner that during the accident, her partner ‘fell 30 feet and lost a kidney, broke both shoulder blades, shattered both legs’ and had suffered ‘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.
She explained how it was also unlikely he would ever walk again as he was ‘paralysed now and 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.’
He has been supported by fiancée Amanda Abbington (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Last month Jonathan sued NBC two years after being ‘catastrophically injured’.
The star claimed that NBC and producers for the network kept going bigger with the stunts to bring in viewership to the AGT franchise, but claimed this came at the expense of safety.
After first meeting on social media, Amanda and Jonathan were engaged within 30 minutes of meeting in person.
His accident happened five weeks later.
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‘This shouldn’t work for me.’
