'It's like having your heart ripped out': Dad's tragic death after freak backflip accident

A woman whose husband died in a freak backflip accident has opened up over the struggle to come to terms with the tragedy.

On Good Friday Chris Leggett was showing a group of children how to do a backflip when the stunt went horribly wrong, landing awkwardly and breaking his neck.

Some even heard his neck break.

"I just looked at him and knew he'd gone," widow Rachael Leggett told 7 News.

Friends of Chris said he had not been drinking and had performed backflips countless times.

Now for the first time Rachael Leggett has opened up over the struggles of coming to terms with the tragedy and having to explain to her child why their dad is no longer here.

'People keep saying 'he's still there with you'. Try explaining that to a 3-year-old when he asks 'When is Daddy coming back from the sky Mummy?',' she told 7 News.

'It's just like having your heart ripped out."

"We'll never feel better but we'll find a way to live with what's happened and I think we have to for the sake of the kids, to give them as close as possible to the life Chris and I wanted for them.

"I think in my heart of hearts I'm still waiting for him to come home."