My new love helps care for my disabled husband! Mom reveals how she copes after horror brain injury

A woman whose husband was left with catastrophic brain damage in a horror crash has revealed how she found love again – with a new partner who helps care for her disabled spouse. 

Amanda Robinson, 39, spent more than four years as the full-time caregiver for her husband Matt, after a 2021 accident left him with life-altering brain injuries.

Now, after rebuilding her life, she has a new partner who not only accepts her past – but actively supports the man she married.

Amanda and Matt met when she was just 16 and in high school. They married two years later in 2005, and went on to have two sons – now aged 20 and 16.  

But the family’s life would change forever in February 2021, when Matt was traveling to work in a truck that was struck by another vehicle on the I-17 in Phoenix and rolled over.

The mom-of-two, from Prescott, Arizona, learned something was wrong when a location-tracking app Life360 sent an alert to her phone warning that Matt’s truck had come to a sudden stop.

When she arrived at the hospital, she barely recognized him.

‘His head was crushed,’ Amanda said. ‘His eyes were black. There was blood coming from his ears, eyes and nose. There was no sign of life in him.’

Doctors warned the family to prepare for the worst.

Matt survived – but the crash permanently damaged the parts of his brain responsible for memory, personality and behavior.

After ten months in hospital, he returned home physically able to walk, talk and eat, but unable to retain new information or live independently. 

He later lost his sight and began experiencing hallucinations, often believing it was still 2021 or that he was heading to work or school.

‘Instead of seeing black, he hallucinates that he’s in places that he’s not. It can get so confusing for him,’ she explained. ‘In his mind, he’s still living life before the accident.

‘Sometimes he tells me he’s off to work, other times he thinks he still goes to school. His memory is all over the place.

‘The hardest part is having to explain to him where he is and what’s going on.

‘We went to our son’s high school graduation, and I have great pictures of him smiling, but he has no idea that our son graduated high school.’

For four years, Amanda cared for him around the clock – washing, dressing, and feeding him, and explaining again and again where he was and what had happened.

In 2024, exhausted and overwhelmed, she made the agonizing decision to move Matt into a nearby care home, allowing her to visit regularly while reclaiming some stability for herself and her sons.

‘Matt and I had a great relationship. I was with him for more than half my life, I fully understand him. We were so happy. We laughed a lot. 

‘Matt is now physically fine, but he can’t retain any information,’ she said. 

‘I used to feel so sad that he lost his career, he lost knowing his kids, he lost friends, he lost everything. He’s just kind of physically here.

‘But then I realized that up until that moment, we had a great life and I don’t think he would regret anything. 

‘I lost all the same things. I lost my career, I lost a lot of time with my kids. I couldn’t do things with friends anymore.

‘I realized that my sons and I needed to be happy too.’ 

In April 2025, Amanda met her new partner, Josh Roy, 38, a country music singer, while he was performing at a local bar in the city and they exchanged numbers. 

Amanda was upfront about her situation, but rather than backing away, Josh leaned in.

At first she wasn’t sure Josh ‘fully understood’ her husband and family’s situation, but after reading about Matt’s condition, she says, Josh told her ‘he sounded like a great guy.’ 

Months later, Josh began accompanying Amanda on visits to the care home – playing guitar for Matt, helping with hospital appointments, and offering quiet support.

‘It was such a pleasant surprise that he seemed genuinely interested in who Matt was before his accident,’ she said.

‘I hadn’t let myself connect with anybody before, because in my mind, I was married and I was dedicated to being a caregiver. I had just accepted that’s the life I was going to have.

‘I did this all by myself for years, and now I have somebody else right there with me and I’m not doing it all alone.’ 

Initially, Amanda’s kids struggled with the fact that their mom was in a new relationship, as it took longer for them to accept that Matt’s condition wasn’t going to improve.

However, after a few months, Amanda’s sons warmed to Josh, and the four of them now go bowling and out for dinner.

‘After hearing about who Matt was prior to his accident, I had nothing but utmost respect for the man he still would be today if he could be,’ Josh told the Daily Mail. 

‘I told Amanda that I wish he could miraculously recover so she can have her family back together and that ever that was the case, I would step aside and be so happy for her and her kids.

‘I enjoy visiting him and I care about him.

‘Amanda is a wonderful woman and I am sharing my life with her, Matt and their two kids, I wouldn’t want any of it to change,’ he added. 

Amanda admits she has faced online criticism from those who accuse her of betraying her marriage vows.

But she rejects that narrative.

‘I don’t have a marriage anymore,’ she said. ‘I know that if Matt was aware of what was going on, he wouldn’t want me to be his caregiver forever, he’d want me to be happy.

‘Everybody’s fully accepted Josh now, and is happy to see me happy again.

‘They see the respect that he has for Matt and my kids.’