Michael Schumacher’s daughter Gina has opened up on life in the immediate aftermath of her father’s tragic skiing accident in France in 2013.
Schumacher, 57, has not been seen in public since the crash which left him in a coma for almost six months after heavy bleeding and bruising on his brain.
On a family skiing holiday in Meribel, he fractured his skull, leading to a traumatic brain injury. He was put into a coma and had two brain surgeries.
The seven-time Formula One world champion’s life has been shrouded in mystery ever since, with only a limited circle of tight-lipped loved ones allowed to see him.
Daily Mail Sport revealed in January that Schumacher is now sitting up in a wheelchair – no longer bedridden – and can be pushed around his £30million estate in Majorca and his £50million residence at Gland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. He is cared for by Corinna, his wife of 30 years, along with a team of nurses and therapists who keep a 24-hour watch costing tens of thousands of pounds a week.
Now his daughter, Gina-Maria Bethke, has revealed that her father’s tragedy left her in such a state that she had to bury herself in one of her passions: horses.
‘After Dad’s accident, I really threw myself into it because I had to do something,’ the 29-year-old, a millionaire equestrian, said on an upcoming documentary titled ‘Horsepower – The World of Gina Schumacher’, via BILD.
Michael Schumacher’s daughter Gina says that turning to horses helped her in the wake of her father’s tragedy
Schumacher has not been seen publicly since his skiing accident in France in 2013
‘The horses have always been important. But since then they’ve really been… I mean, I couldn’t do without horses. They helped me get through everything .
‘She [my mother] used to have a horse, and when we were younger, she wanted to start again. But she wanted a safe horse.
‘Then she was in Dubai with Dad, and they rode Arabians. Dad fell off one. There was a Quarter Horse next to it, and he was there to calm the others down. And then Mum said she wanted a horse like that.”‘
She added: ‘I’m grateful that I can do this. Because it’s not something to take for granted.
‘My parents made it possible. That’s why it’s always been important to me to work hard in this area, so that I can do it as well as I possibly can.’
Her mother, Corinna, added: ‘Michael once said to me, when Gina was ten: “Gina will be much better than you.”
‘He explained: “Because she’s more selfish. If you’re an athlete, you have to be selfish in a certain way. And that’s great. Otherwise, you won’t amount to anything.” Today I think: he was so right.’
Last April, Gina gave birth to her first child with husband Iain Bethke, who she married in September 2024. They married at the family’s luxury villa in Majorca, which they bought for £27million in 2017.
BILD reported that it was ‘very likely’ that her father was present, though this was disputed.
One rumour speculated that the man dubbed the first billionaire sportsman was suffering from pseudocoma, or locked-in syndrome – a condition in which patients are conscious and fully aware but unable to respond other than by blinking.
However, multiple sources told Daily Mail Sport’s F1 doyen Jonathan McEvoy that this is inaccurate.
‘The feeling is he understands some of the things going on around him, but probably not all of them,’ said one.
