PETRA ENGAGED 14 MONTHS AFTER DIVORCE

She endured a bitter split from ex James Stunt, culminating in a shocking £5.5bn divorce. But just 14 months on, socialite and F1 heiress Petra Ecclestone, 30, has revealed she is now engaged to Maddox Gallery director Sam Palmer. He announced the engagement on Instagram on New Year’s Eve with a sweet picture of the pair, saying, “My personal highlights have been opening the gallery in LA with the woman I love and her agreeing to marry me... Here is to a fantastic 2019”.

Petra met Sam through her brother-in-law Jay Rutland, who is married to her sister Tamara, 34, and the pair started dating in late 2017.

Petra has daughter Lavinia, five, and three-year-old twins James and Andrew with businessman James, 36, whom she married in a lavish £12m ceremony in Italy in 2011. The pair announced their split five years later and were divorced in 2017 amid allegations of James’ abusive behaviour, which he denies.

He later raised eyebrows when he slammed his ex-wife and her parents in an interview, calling Petra’s billionaire father Bernie, 88, a “dwarf”, his wife Slavica “Lady Macbeth” and Petra a “C-list celebrity”.

Reflecting on how she moved on from the split, Petra has said, “I think it was the kids. I didn’t have the option of lying in bed, being depressed and feeling sorry for myself. I had to wake up for them. They kind of pushed me through it.”