Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I married a C-list celebrity dwarf’s daughter
Ex-husband on the Ecclestones
PETRA Ecclestone’s ex-husband James Stunt has branded his former wife a “horrible human being” and her father Bernie “a dwarf” following their bitter divorce.
The billionaire businessman also complained that his social standing went downhill when he married “a C-list celebrity’s daughter”.
Stunt referred to former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, 87, and his ex-wife Slavica, 59, as “that dwarf Bernie” and “Lady Macbeth”.
In a lengthy and at times erratic interview with Tatler magazine, Stunt, 36, said that he is “as rich as ever” despite his £5.5billion divorce, and “gambles £5million a night”.
Stunt said his 29-year-old ex-wife Petra is “the best girl I ever met”, but then added: “This girl who’s had a lobotomy. This is a horrible human being.”
Speaking of Bernie, Stunt said: “I have no animosity towards him – he’s just very cut-throat, he has no empathy.” And he branded Petra’s mother, Slavica, as “the worst of them all”.
Petra won sole custody of the couple’s three children – daughter Lavinia, aged five, and twin sons James Jr and Andrew, aged two – amid an acrimonious and public divorce battle that lasted several months.
Stunt also admitted he struggled with addiction to morphine and Valium for months after moving to Los Angeles with Petra following their 2011 wedding.
He said: “Being the addictive personality I am, I start taking them like Smarties. Suddenly, I’m addicted.”
But the businessman said he “got off the drugs in world-record time” and claims reports of him overdosing were incorrect. Stunt also denied being a “coke addict”, though he admitted to taking the drug “about five times” when he was a teenager. He added that people often mistake his ADHD for “drug use”.
Since the couple’s divorce, Stunt, 36, lives in a £12million house in Eaton Square, Central London.
Responding to Stunt’s interview, Petra’s sister, Tamara, 33, wrote on Instagram: “What kind of ‘man’ does this on his daughter’s birthday? Unless he stops telling lies about my family, we will have to start telling the truth about him.”
Bernie, who previously called Stunt “an idiot”, also reacted. He said: “He got heavily into drugs and that has changed him and they have taken their toll.
“It is a great shame, as James was a nice man when he got married.”
Addressing the fact that Stunt called him a “dwarf ”, Bernie added: “He can say what he likes as every man is entitled to their own opinion.” Petra’s spokesman said she would not be commenting.