FORMER Formula One driver and the brother of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, Ralf, has taken to social media to announce he is in a same-sex relationship.
Schumacher, 49, shared a heartfelt post to his Instagram page on Saturday of himself standing arm-in-arm with another man on a boat.
He captioned the post: “The most beautiful thing in life is when you have the right partner by your side with whom you can share everything.”
Carmen Geiss, a close friend of Schumacher’s and a German actress, replied to the post in the comments section, revealing Schumacher’s partner to be a man called Etienne.
She said: “I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH. You have the best partner, Etienne, you can imagine.
“After 2 years you can finally show your love to the world. I have known Ralf for more than 25 years and he has always been a great joy to me.
“Always liberal, a good-hearted person who I can call day and night and above all has always been honest with me in his position.
“I am happy that I got to be a part of this love and even more happy for the two who searched and found each other, because I also love Étienne deeply.”
She had also taken to her main page to share a photos of herself alongside Schumacher and Etienne, which the German driver also shared to his own story.
German Schumacher started 180 races while driving for Jordan, Williams and Toyota across 11 seasons in F1. He won six of them during that time.
His personal life had been the subject of speculation throughout his racing career.
In 2001 he got married to Cora-Caroline Brinkmann, with whom he had a son, David – who has also gone on to become a racing driver – before the pair eventually divorced in 2015.
The 22-year-old also shared a heartwarming comment of his own under his father’s post, saying: “I am very happy that you have finally found someone with whom you really feel that you feel very comfortable and secure, no matter if you are a man or a woman, I am 100% behind you dad and wish you all the best and congratulations.”
Prior to the reveal, only two former F1 drivers, Lelia Lombardi and Mike Beuttler, had publicly come out as members of the LGTBQ+ community.
Ralf is the younger brother of Michael, who has been recovering from a horrific skiing accident in 2013.
News of his health has been a closely-guarded secret over the past decade.
Details of a sickening £12million blackmail plot have been revealed after two men were accused of threatening the Ferrari legend’s family and conspiring to reveal the star’s health condition on the dark web.
One of them is said to have worked for Schumacher’s family as a security guard for almost five years.
The man – who can only be named as Markus F due to German law – allegedly stole two hard drives of medical data said to contain the health records of the motorsport legend.
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