Michael Schumacher; (right) Gina Schumacher with Iain Bethke© Twitter
Michael Schumacher is one F1 driver who has transcended the sport. The seven-time F1 world champion met with a life-threatening skiing accident in 2013 at the French Alps. Since then little has been known about his health condition. According to reports, the 54-year-old has been residing privately in Switzerland, and details about his health have been kept confidential. However, fresh reports in European media suggest that the F1 great was 'seen in public' first time since the accident for his daughter Gina's wedding with her boyfriend Iain Bethke at the family's luxury villa in Mallorca, Spain.
Metro.co.uk reported that "the wedding is believed to be the first time Michael has been allowed in public since his accident". The report was titled "Michael Schumacher 'seen in public for first time in 11 years'"
German publication BILD also said that it was "quite possible. Even very likely" for Schumacher to be present at the ceremony though not in the garden where people apart from 'close guests' were present.
The guests were reportedly asked to submit their phones so that photos may not be leaked of the event, according to multiple reports.
A few months ago, former world champion Sebastian Vettel, who is close to Schumacher and his family, recently revealed that the F1 legend "is not doing well".
Schumacher's lawyer, Felix Damm, however, has revealed that the former F1 driver's family has decided not to make his final health report public due to privacy concerns.
"It was always about protecting private things. We considered whether a final report about Michael's health could be the right way to do this," Damm told German media outlet LTO, as quoted by SI.com.
Damm also stated that Schumacher's family would have come under pressure from the media to release timely health updates, had they released the final health report.
"But that wouldn't have been the end of it and there would have had to be constantly updated 'water level reports' and it would not have been up to the family when the media interest in the story stopped."
"They [the media] could pick up on such a report again and again and as 'and what does it look like now?' one, two, three months or years after the message," he added. "If we then wanted to take action against this reporting, we would have to deal with the argument of voluntary self-disclosure," he added.