New photo Formula 1 £230m heiress gets engaged to a used car salesman

They have been dating for barely a year, and she settled a very messy divorce from her first husband only 15 months ago.

However heiress Petra Ecclestone, who is worth £230million, has proved the old axiom that hope springs eternal, announcing yesterday that she is delighted to have accepted a proposal of marriage from her new boyfriend.

Her father Bernie, the billionaire Formula 1 tycoon, last night groaned: ‘I told her I don’t know what the hurry is… I don’t understand the reason.’

The lucky man is Sam Palmer, 34, an electrician turned vintage car salesman from Harlow, Essex.

Before they started dating Mr Palmer was noted for his habit of wearing shoes without socks and for his friendship with Jay Rutland, the flashy husband of Petra’s younger sister Tamara.

Sam Palmer and Petra Ecclestone attend the Grand Opening Maddox Gallery Los Angeles

Since he started dating Petra, 30, he has been set up in business in an art gallery in Los Angeles, the city where they are now living together.

The engagement was announced yesterday by him on the gallery’s Instagram page. He wrote: ‘A personal thank you to everyone that made opening Maddox Gallery Los Angeles possible. I hope everyone had as an amazing year as us and that 2019 brings lots of love, health and happiness to all.

‘My personal highlights have been opening the gallery in LA with the woman I love and her agreeing to marry me. Here is to a fantastic 2019.’

A spokesman for Petra said last night: ‘Petra Ecclestone and Sam Palmer are delighted to announce their engagement and look forward to spending 2019 together.’

In what will no doubt be music to father Bernie’s ears, she is planning to get a pre-nuptial agreement again when she marries.

In an interview in November she said: ‘I try not to speak about marriage with Sam yet as I’m trying not to be needy and to play it cool.

‘I randomly bumped into him when he came to LA to visit Jay. I honestly thought I was going to be celibate or turn into a lesbian. You meet someone when you least expect it or want it.

‘I would marry again as I don’t believe you should say one experience will be like another experience in life. I’d get a pre-nup again though.’

She told another interviewer that she hopes to have more children, and to possibly adopt.

Engagement Party for Petra Ecclestone and James Stunt, Battersea Power Station, London, 2011

She has left behind her £70million house in London which she says is now too violent a city to live in with her young family Lavinia, five, and twins Andrew and James, three.

Within five months of starting to date, Mr Palmer had moved in with Petra. Over the summer he removed the cleaners, housekeepers and chauffeurs who had been working for his girlfriend during her first marriage, to bullion dealer James Stunt. The couple then relocated to LA.

Bernie Ecclestone wished the couple well last night, but said that he wasn’t sure why it was all moving at such speed.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘Yes, I understand she is getting married or something. I would rather not be involved [in saying anything] because I told her I don’t know what the hurry is, why she wants to hurry up and get married, I don’t understand the reason.

‘If someone really wants to get married they will wait. Anyway, she is all anxious. I suppose she is very happy and so I am happy if she is happy. That is the most important thing.’

He added: ‘Let’s hope everything works out well; she had such a rough ride the last time. I don’t want to see that happen again. And I am sure it won’t.

Bernie Ecclestone at Petra Ecclestone and James Stunt's divorce case at the Family Court, London

‘Have I met him? Sure, sure. Nothing wrong. He is OK. But in my view they should be together for a year and then decide[ to get married]. Anyway, she knows what she is doing and I am happy from that point of view.’

Petra’s first marriage, to Stunt, was nothing short of a gold-plated nightmare. The wedding itself in 2011 cost a mind-boggling £12million.

The mother of the bride, Slavica, said afterwards: ‘I don’t care how much the wedding cost, as it was once in a lifetime occasion. It was worth every penny because it made my daughter happy. Who cares about money?’

Bernie, though, was horrified by the extravagance, particularly by how much was spent on wine – the one chosen cost £4,000 a bottle.

He said: ‘When it was suggested how much they would be spending on drinks, I thought it was absurd, and I managed to upset my daughter and my wife.’

When the marriage disintegrated in 2017 a bitter court battle ensued; allegations that Stunt was abusive and violent and took drug overdoses were made, and denied. 

It was alleged that Stunt made a gun gesture at Bernie in court. In an entertainingly intemperate interview Stunt later called his former father in law a ‘****’ and a ‘dwarf’. Bernie, who is 5ft 3in, responded: ‘Well, it’s fair enough. I’m a little shorter than the average, I think.’

Stunt said that Petra was a ‘girl who’s had a lobotomy and gone to Jonestown’ — a reference to the former South American cult.

Petra said in October that divorce had been the worst experience of her life.

They are said to be on better terms now and her ex-husband apparently approves of his successor , and wishes Petra all the best with her marriage to him.

Happily for the Ecclestone family, Petra’s fortune was protected by a pre-nuptial agreement with Stunt and source suggests that she brushed him off for £10million.

She kept sole custody of their three children, and the houses in London and LA. The home in LA, The Manor, is the largest private home in California. Previously owned by TV tycoon Aaron Spelling, it has 123 rooms.

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News Pictures Formula 1 £230m heiress gets engaged to a used car salesman

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Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”

kim cattrall

Size: 10-12
Age: 52
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SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.

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