Gina Schumacher and Iain Bethke got married in Mallorca.@tali__photography/dpa
Gina Schumacher (27), the daughter of the legendary Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher (55), is under the hood. Yesterday, Saturday (September 28th), she married her boyfriend, the former show jumper Iain Bethke (28), very romantically at the Schumachers’ luxurious property in the mountains near Port d’Andratx on Mallorca. Of course, Ralf Schumacher (49) and his partner Étienne Bousquet-Cassagne were also there. Only one important man from the life of the Schumacher family was missing on this big day: Michael’s ex-manager Willi Weber (82).
Ex-manager Willi Weber not at Gina Schumacher’s wedding
As Michael Schumacher’s manager, Willi Weber played a key role in the racing driver’s success for over twenty years. In the press, Weber was often called “Mr. “20 percent” because he demanded 20 percent of the potential income from his protégé as a fee. In 2010, Willi Weber handed over Michael’s management to Schumacher’s former media consultant Sabine Kehm, who still looks after the family today and also manages Schumacher’s son Mick (25). Weber also worked for Ralf as a manager until 2006. Despite the professional distance, Willi Weber and the Schumacher family always got along well. But the sports manager wasn’t at Gina’s wedding. Why?
He explained to the Bild newspaper: “I wasn’t invited, but I wouldn’t have attended the wedding even if I had been invited. My health is not going well at the moment. I wouldn’t have felt like flying to Mallorca.” Regarding his health, Willi Weber continues: “I always say that it could be better, but it could also be worse. It’s okay. I’m still alive, I can walk, eat and drink. What more could you want? But life is beautiful. You just have to spend it with the right people.”
Willi Weber was Michael Schumacher’s discoverer and long-time manager.Andreas Beil/Imago
No more contact after Michael Schumacher’s accident
Willi Weber, of course, wishes Gina all the best and hopes that she has “found the right man” in Iain Bethke, he says. But there is no longer any contact between Gina and Willi Weber and that mainly has to do with Michael Schumacher’s serious skiing accident in 2013: “Since Michael’s accident I didn’t want to go anymore. I have suffered enough from the consequences of his accident. For three years. That’s enough.”
When it comes to Michael Schumacher, Willi Weber still gets emotional: “Michael was one of my best friends, more like a son that I never had. Nobody knows exactly what’s going on with him today, so I don’t want to comment any further.”■
