He was going to blow her head off
Anguished father tells MoS: My abusive son-in-law models himself on gangsters and issued threat to mother of his children, my Petra…
AS FAR as legal dramas go, it must surely rank as one of the most bizarre ever to grace the family courts in London. Rarely can a judge have been asked to preside over a preliminary hearing – let alone one involving £5.5bn in assets – in which one of the main parties made a crude gun gesture at his billionaire father-inlaw, referring to him as a ‘c***’ in the process.
But while the events may have been extraordinary, they were not entirely surprising. Because to many close to this case, it is merely the culmination of what has long been suspected: that something very strange has been going on in the marriage of this very wealthy couple. Throughout it all, former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has said little about the mounting tensions within his family.
But today, in a moving interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, he lifts the lid on the dramatic collapse of the six-year marriage between his youngest daughter Petra and her ‘erratic’ playboy husband James Stunt.
Shedding new light on claims heard in court this week that Stunt could be ‘abusive and violent’, Ecclestone describes his son-in-law as a man who seems impressed by gangsters – and makes the astonishing claim that Stunt once threatened to ‘blow [Petra’s] head off’ during a heated argument. The 35-year-old is alleged to have threatened his wife as the couple enjoyed dinner at The Rib Room in the five-star Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel in London’s Belgravia, in October 2015.
Recalling the distressing episode, Ecclestone said: ‘He was going to blow her head off; he threatened her with something. He was going to threaten her. It wasn’t very nice and that’s why she went to the police. He was being a bit abusive and a little bit silly. [But] when you say something, you’ve probably been thinking along those lines or else you wouldn’t say it.’
It is a disturbing claim, even if the precise details of what took place that night remain unclear. Yet it is supported not only by Mr Ecclestone but by a number of sources.
In a separate account, someone close to the family explained how an ‘enraged’ Stunt got so angry during the meal that he told Petra: ‘I’m going to put a bullet in your head.’
A terrified Petra is then said to have hidden in a cupboard when the couple returned to their Chelsea mansion, and made a series of calls to her mother Slavica and sister Tamara.
The same source said that although
It’s like EastEnders – with a cast of billionaires
Petra reported the incident to police the following day and Stunt was arrested, charges were not brought.
Stunt himself strongly denied making any such threat.
The police later confirmed the arrest. Today, Ecclestone, 86, speaks of his regret that he wasn’t able to help ‘unhappy’ Petra earlier, as her relationship with Stunt foundered.
‘I wish it had never happened, obviously – the fact she left,’ he said. ‘Because she wouldn’t have left if everything had been all right, would she? Petra is so quiet and not aggressive in any way, and that’s the problem.’
Troubled, he said his daughter’s unhappiness was ‘the most difficult thing’ to deal with and reveals that Petra kept much of her distress from her parents, until she filed for divorce. ‘She’s very private, like I am,’ he said. ‘She doesn’t go round explaining her problems. If she’s got problems, she deals with them on her own. It’s a shame she didn’t speak to me earlier.’
But he admitted: ‘If she ever had come to me and said he’d done something, it wouldn’t be good for him.’
Ecclestone himself was involved in a public altercation with his son-in-law when, during the preliminary hearing on Wednesday, it was reported that Stunt made a gun gesture at his fatherin-law before ‘barging’ into him and calling him a ‘c***’. The 35-year-old then stormed out of the building, greeting photographers with an obscene gesture. Playing down the incident, Ecclestone insisted: ‘No, no, he didn’t punch me, just banged me on the shoulder.’ But he agreed that it was an aggressive gesture.
To most people, such behaviour might come as a shock. But Ecclestone has suggested Stunt was interested in
gangsters and others have said he compared himself to the late New York-based Mafia boss John Gotti, also known as The Dapper Don. ‘He’s impressed with those sort of people – I think he watches all those gangster films,’ Ecclestone said. ‘People said, “He thinks he’s John Gotti.’’’ Certainly, Stunt is well-known for surrounding himself with bodyguards and travelling in blacked-out limousines.
He also owns a fleet of distinctive supercars, including a Rolls-Royce, Range Rovers and a Lamborghini. The strange courtroom confrontation was by no means the first between Ecclestone and his son-in-law.
Ecclestone also described another tussle that descended into near-farce during a children’s tea party – thrown to celebrate the second birthday of Petra and James’s daughter Lavinia in February 2015. The event, at the exclusive One Marylebone venue, was attended by around 20 guests, including Ecclestone’s ex-wife Slavica Radic, Tamara, and other young children.
The altercation involved Tamara and even Stunt’s father Geoffrey, 67, who stepped in to defuse the row when it threatened to erupt into violence.
Ecclestone insisted that he didn’t ‘remember in detail’ how the row began. But he recalled: ‘I think [James] came and said something and Tamara said something and he was a bit rude to her. And he was getting a bit stroppy. I told him: “You better come outside.”
‘And I was walking out with him and his father came along and he said, “You two shouldn’t make a big fuss, this is a party, come on, come back inside together,” which we did.
‘So we walked back together. Like most of these things when they happen, it’s forgotten. It was forgotten.’
However, another guest recalled the dispute as being physical. The guest told this newspaper: ‘James started shoving and pushing Mr Ecclestone around – the daughters tried to break it up. The families all have their own bodyguards who were not sure if they should step in. It was a public place so people started watching. Eventually James stormed off and the party came to an abrupt end.’ For Ecclestone, the behaviour came as little surprise. The billionaire has previously referred to Stunt as ‘a flash bastard’ and an ‘idiot’, and has voiced his disapproval of his son-in-law’s conspicuous displays of wealth.
But the source explained that, at the time, the argument had caused ‘a huge wedge’ between Petra and the rest of the family, adding: ‘It’s like EastEnders for billionaires.’
It is not known whether the divide was bridged but Tamara, 33, is said to have not spoken to Stunt ‘for years’.
Despite their differences, it is clear Ecclestone remains disappointed at the breakdown of the relationship. Petra and Stunt met on a blind date in 2006 and married in 2011, in a lavish Italian ceremony. The couple then moved to a 123-room LA home, before relocating last year to Belgravia.
Last night, Ecclestone admitted he had been concerned at the change in Stunt’s character over the years.
‘I used to like him,’ he said. ‘He used to be a very nice guy. He changed – he’s very quiet and a little bit unruly. What happened, I really don’t know.’
When asked how he would describe his son-in-law, he added: ‘A bit erratic. The trouble is, he’s got a short fuse and it doesn’t take much to light it.
‘If the fuse goes off, you don’t know what he’s going to do or what’s going to happen. Silly little things fire him up, things which probably wouldn’t disturb you or me. It’s very easy for him to get upset over things he shouldn’t be upset about. You wouldn’t want to live with that because you wouldn’t know when it’s going to happen. That’s what the problem is.’
Tellingly, Ecclestone revealed that it was not possible to confront Stunt about his behaviour towards Petra. ‘No, you don’t have conversations with James,’ he said. ‘ Yo u listen.’
Certainly there is unlikely to be a more civil conversation any time soon. The court hearing this week was brought by Petra to try to evict Stunt from the home the couple shared with their three young children.
Stunt left on a judge’s orders on Friday in the back of a Rolls-Royce, puffing on a cigarette and – bizarrely – clutching two porcelain cats. Divorce proceedings are due to begin next month in London’s High Court.
Stunt is known as being rather eccentric and, arguably, paranoid, and has cultivated an air of mystery around his wealth. Idiosyncrasies include being resolutely teetotal, despite owning a vast collection of fine wines and worrying about germs – and potential assassins – to the extent he carries an Evian bottle everywhere he goes filled with his own soft drink.
When asked about it last year, he said: ‘Someone might try and poison me.’ He spends a lot of time in a London casino, where the security is said to make him ‘feel safe’.
Accused of trading off the Ecclestone name, he has encouraged suggestions that he is independently rich. Friends say he is generous and loyal, and will shower those close to him with expensive wines, cars and even properties. But quite how his wealth has been amassed is unclear and Ecclestone himself has confided to friends in the past that he ‘couldn’t make head nor tail’ of Stunt’s business claims.
For Ecclestone, the court date has come as something of a relief. It’s clear Stunt’s apparent instability has affected the whole family. He said Petra is now back in her home, while Stunt has apparently been prevented from contacting any of the family.
‘She’s happy now that she can get back into her house with the children and she’s tidying it up a bit,’ Ecclestone said. ‘He has been ordered not to bother her or any of her family. If he comes and bothers us he’s going to be in trouble for that.’
Last night, police confirmed Stunt was arrested in 2015 over the altercation at The Rib Room. However, they decided to take no further action regarding the incident.
He’s got a short fuse and it doesn’t take much to light