Maintaining Michael Schumacher’s health and privacy is of the utmost importance to his wife Corinna
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It’s coming up on 12 years since Michael Schumacher’s life-changing skiing accident(Image: Pool Interagences, Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Corinna Schumacher has been steadfast in her battle to maintain the privacy of her husband Michael Schumacher’s health condition through the courts. It’s been nearly 12 years since the seven-time Formula One champion had a life-changing skiing accident in the French Alps in December 2013.
Since then, the 56-year-old racing legend has made no public appearances, with only a select few individuals, permitted by his wife, Corinna, allowed to visit him. It’s understood that Schumacher requires constant care in a home-based hospital setting.
Amid efforts to preserve Schumacher’s privacy, it was revealed last year that the Schumacher family had been combating alleged blackmail attempts from his former bodyguard.
Markus Fritsche, who worked for Schumacher until around 2021, was accused of being involved in the blackmail scheme against the family, allegedly using hundreds of personal photos, videos and medical records of the icon.
Alongside Fritsche, Yilmaz Tozturkan, a bouncer, and his son, IT specialist Daniel Lins, were also implicated in the extortion scheme, threatening to release the footage on the dark web unless they received £12million.
Earlier this year, the trio were found guilty of conspiring to obtain private footage of Schumacher. Tozturkan was sentenced to three years in prison, while Fritsche received a two-year suspended sentence and Lins was given a six-month suspended sentence.
During the hearing, Corinna remained utterly determined to protect her husband’s medical privacy, having requested last year that the proceedings of the hearing were to be held privately, according to German publication Bild.
The Wuppertal Regional Court did partially granted Corinna’s request as they temporarily closed the courtroom to the public for one specific aspect of the case. Corinna’s request was partly successful due to planned evidence from a Wuppertal investigator, who was set to give testimony during the appeal hearing.
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The status of Michael Schumacher’s health remains closely guarded by his family(Image: Getty)
The 60-year-old’s evidence related to private video material that featured Schumacher after his tragic accident. Continuing to keep up Schumacher’s privacy has remained absolutely crucial to his wife, who has been by his side for more than 30 years.
Throughout the trial, the family voiced concerns that one hard drive containing footage of the F1 icon remained unaccounted for. Thilo Damm, legally representing the Schumacher family, stated earlier this year: “We don’t know where the missing hard drive is … so there is the possibility of another threat through the back door.”