A top neurosurgeon has questioned reports that F1 legend Michael Schumacher made a rare public appearance to attend his daughter’s wedding.
Schumacher’s daughter Gina tied the knot with her boyfriend Iain Bethke at the family’s luxury £27m villa in Majorca last month.
The couple said ‘I do’ under an arch of flowers at Villa Yasmin, the property seven-time F1 world champion Schumacher’s wife Corinna is understood to have bought in 2017 from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.
BILD has claimed that it is ‘very likely’ Michael was at his daughter’s wedding despite being virtually missing from public life since his life-changing skiing incident in 2013.
However, now, a top neurosurgeon has come forward to dispute these claims and suggested that ‘everything points to him being unwell’.
A top neurosurgeon has questioned reports that F1 legend Michael Schumacher made a rare public appearance in order to attend his daughter’s wedding last month
Schumacher’s daughter Gina tied the knot with her boyfriend Iain Bethke last month
Gina Schumacher confirmed the news via a post on her Instagram account on Saturday
Speaking to Iltalehti, Jussi Posti – head of the neurosurgery and traumatic brain injury department at Turku University Hospital in Finland – said: ‘If a hospital has been built in his house, with everything medicalised around him, it seems that he has been in hospital most of the time’.
‘Based on the information available, I don’t think he leads a very active life. Everything points to him being unwell. As bedridden patients, most people become so frail and stiff that it is no longer possible to get them out of bed after so many years’.
Given the limited information that has come out about Schumacher’s current health, Posti insists that it’s likely the F1 legend’s conditions hasn’t changed.
‘It suggests that he has probably been in the same condition for the last decade. I doubt that anything sudden has changed at this stage,’ he said.
‘Typically, patients recover what they can recover for up to two years, and then the level of recovery is usually set. Essentially, these types of patients are very experimental models at best’.
A statement released nearly a year after the accident told fans he was no longer in a coma and was ‘continuing a long phase of rehabilitation’, but few details of his condition have been revealed since.
Spanish newspapers had reported in 2020 that Schumacher had been moved on a more permanent basis to the exclusive property on the upmarket estate of Las Brisas near Andratx in the south-west of Majorca from the couple’s Swiss home.
Schumacher has not been seen publicly since a skiing accident in 2013 (Schumacher pictured with his wife Corinna in 2005)
Gina and her brother Mick (left) wished their dad happy birthday earlier this year with touching messages as he turned 55
The Schumacher family did not want any photos being leaked of the inside of their luxury Villa in Majorca
Rumours that Schumacher is unable to speak were backed up by his son, Mick, during a 2021 Netflix documentary about his father’s life. He said: ‘I think dad and me, we would understand each other now in a different way now.’
The effects of a traumatic brain injury depends on a number of factors such as the type, location and severity of injury, brain injury charity Headway says.
It adds that symptoms of a brain injury are wide-ranging, from physical effects such as balance problems, headaches, and dizziness, to cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects. This can include memory problems, fatigue, and anger.
Posti continued: ‘There are various after-effects of brain damage. For example, the injury can make the patient unwilling to communicate with anyone other than his immediate family.
‘It may also be the case that no one other than the patient’s immediate family can stimulate him or her enough to communicate in a meaningful way’.
The ceremony was held at the family’s £27m mansion in Majorca, which Schumacher is understood to have bought in 2017 from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez
Schumacher lives and receives treatments in his £50million mansion in Gland, Switzerland
The last proper update fans received was in 2023, when it was reported that Schumacher had been driven in a Mercedes AMG sportscar in a bid to stimulate areas of his brain he once used for racing.
German outlet Bild recently reported that guests had their phones confiscated because the family did not want anyone taking unauthorised photos of the property’s private rooms.
Guests at the wedding are said to have included Michael’s brother Ralf and his partner Etienne Bosquet-Cassagne, who have been embroiled in a row with the former’s ex-wife Cora over her claims she felt ‘stabbed in the heart’ after finding out he was gay.
The villa has a landing pad and he is regularly flown from to the villa in Port d’Andratx from the family home by Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
It is part of a 15,000 square metre estate which boasts two swimming pools, a helipad, a gym and a huge palm-tree-fringed garden.
The ceremony lasted around half an hour according to respected Majorcan daily Ultima Hora.
Updates on the health of the Ferrari legend have been few and far between in recent years
The newspaper reported a banquet and party with live music by a country music band was taking place tonight at the villa in Port d’Andratx.
Last montha pair of suspects, Yilmaz T, 53, and his 30-year-old son from Wuppertal in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region, were charged after they were arrested for allegedly threatening to leak images of Schumacher taken after his near-fatal skiing crash.
They allegedly told the Schumachers they ‘would not want (the pictures) published’ and ‘demanded millions’ to stop them from doing so.
The two men, who were arrested on June 19, transferred ‘individual files’ to the family to show they had access to documents about the F1 star – threats that investigators later deemed credible.