WHO’S WHO IN THIS HIGH COURT SOAP OPERA
THE UNHAPPY COUPLE
Making an obscene gesture at photographers and guzzling in the street from a plastic bottle which clearly did not contain just water, James Stunt was in typically oafish form.
The flabby-jowled, perma-tanned would-be entrepreneur had his hair slicked back and wore a button-up white T-shirt beneath his shiny blue designer suit.
He married Petra, the Barbie-like Formula One heiress, in an over-the-top Italian ceremony in 2011 at 15th century Odescalchi Castle in Tuscany (also chosen by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for their doomed 2006 nuptials). Petra’s billionaire daddy Bernie Ecclestone picked up the £12million bill.
Despite her towering red high heels and a well-above-the knee floral pattern dress, Petra looked demure in comparison to Stunt.
Stunt, who had a middle-class upbringing in Surrey with his publishing director father and mother, already had a reputation as a nightclub-loving playboy when they began dating. Last September, his brother Lee, 37, was found dead at their parents’ £3.5million mansion.
Throughout the couple’s relationship, questions have been asked about how Stunt came by his money. Last month it was revealed that his art-dealing company, Stunt Acquisitions, had suffered a fall in its net worth from £2.78million to £1.89million. It is said both the homes they shared were in Petra’s name only.
THE STEEL MAGNOLIA DIVORCE LAWYER
Fiona Shackleton is Britain’s most famous divorce lawyer. She was dubbed the ‘Steel Magnolia’ for her charm and determination after securing Prince Charles a divorce settlement in 1996 which saw Princess Diana lose her HRH title.
Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia had made her name handling Prince Andrew’s £2 million divorce from the Duchess of York.
She memorably had a glass of water thrown over her by a furious Heather Mills during her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney in 2008. She represented the Beatle and ensured that former model Miss Mills got only £24million of the £125million she had sought.
Yesterday, the 61-year-old, who remains solicitor for Princes William and Harry, wore a wide-brimmed hat that looked like it would have kept her dry in the event of another such incident. At £600 an hour, she does not come cheap. The daughter of Bank of England adviser and Sheriff of the City of London, she was educated at Benenden School in Kent. She secured only a third-class degree in law at Exeter University.
Her ex-Army husband is a descendant of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.
THE LOTHARIO BARRISTER
In an open-necked shirt and tousled hair of which his actor client Hugh Grant would be proud, barrister David Sherborne has previously found himself in the spotlight over his affair with a married lawyer during Sir Brian Leveson’s inquiry into the Press.
While representing Grant and other advocates of draconian Press regulation in 2012, he went on holiday to the Greek island of Santorini with mother-of-two Carine Patry Hoskins, a member of the Leveson inquiry’s counsel team.
The pair claimed they merely discussed the ‘possibility of a future relationship and decided against it’. But they said they changed their minds and became a couple after the inquiry ended. Despite an official complaint their behaviour could have compromised Leveson’s findings – a complaint rejected by Sir Brian – the Bar Standards Board said there was ‘no realistic prospect’ that a disci- plinary tribunal would find against them.
Not surprisingly, the watchdog’s decision was described as a ‘complete whitewash’.
THE OUTSPOKEN BILLIONAIRE
Bernie Ecclestone once criticised daughters Petra and Tamara, 33, for squandering much of his estimated £2.5billion fortune and described Stunt as ‘a flash bastard’. He insisted on having him ‘well and truly checked out’, hiring an agency to look into his finances. He added jokily: ‘James is a lovely lad and he’d probably like to be a billionaire. He’s harmless – but he’s an idiot.’
In 2014, Ecclestone appeared in court in Germany on trial for bribery. He denied wrongdoing but paid £64million to the court to settle the case.
THE FLASH CAR
Stunt has a penchant for driving around London on shopping trips in a cavalcade of flashy vehicles, including a £3.1million Lamborghini and a collection of RollsRoyce Phantoms and Bentleys. In America, his accompanied to shopping malls by minders carrying pistols under their suits.
Yesterday, it was a £600,000 Rolls Royce Mansory Conquistador, which he drove from the back of the court building after the hearing. Unwisely, he once boasted to Bernie Ecclestone that was the only one in the world – to which the Formula 1 boss sneered that it was ‘unsuitable’ for London, adding: ‘Why are you driving around in that bloody car?’