Markus Fritsche – who was employed by Schumacher up until around 2021 – had been accused of playing a role in blackmailing  the family and is said to have allegedly used hundreds of personal photos, videos and the icon’s medical records. Alongside Fritsche, Yilmaz Tozturkan, a bouncer, and his son, IT specialist Daniel Lins were also accused of contributing in the extortion plot where they threatened to release the footage on the dark web unless they received a figure of £12million.

It was earlier this year when the trio were convicted of conspiring to obtain private footage of Schumacher with Tozturkan given a three-year sentence. Fritsche was given a two-year suspended sentence while Lins was handed a six-month suspended sentence.

It was during the hearing that Corinna maintained steadfast in her efforts to keep her husband’s health private by requesting the case to be heard privately last year, according to German newspaper Bild. The Wuppertal Regional Court instead temporarily closed doors on the proceedings for one particular aspect of the case.

Corinna managed to partially get her way due to the planned testimony of a Wuppertal investigator who was scheduled to testify in the appeal trial. The 60-year-old’s contribution to the case surrounded the private footage that featured Schumacher following his harrowing accident.

Schumacher’s ability to maintain privacy has always been of paramount importance to his wife, who has been with him for over 30 years. During the trial, the family had expressed worry that one hard drive containing footage of the F1 great had not yet been found. Thilo Damm, the Schumacher family lawyer, said earlier this year: “We don’t know where the missing hard drive is … so there is the possibility of another threat through the back door.”