Michael Schumacher: His wife Corinna Speaks Out Again: “When I hear him, I cry”
“When I hear it today while I’m in the car, I cry.” Corinna Schumacher gets emotional when she talks about Paula Abdul’s “Rush Rush,” the song she considers linked to her love story with Michael: “Our song,” she explains. It’s one of the few references to the present made by the wife of the seven-time Formula 1 world champion in the documentary *Schumacher ’94: The Birth of a Legend*, available on Netflix starting October 2.
Throughout the interview, however, one idea comes up repeatedly that says a lot about the relationship between Corinna and Michael: it’s easy to be there for someone during happy times, but it’s during the toughest times that the strength of a bond is truly tested. Michael Schumacher has not appeared in public for nearly 13 years, since that terrible skiing accident in Méribel on December 29, 2013. Since then, the family has chosen to maintain the utmost discretion regarding his health. Corinna’s most recent public statements date back to another Netflix documentary, *Schumacher*, released in 2021: “Michael is here; he’s different, but he’s here,” his wife had said. “We live together at home, we do therapy, we do everything we can to help Michael feel better and to make sure he’s comfortable.”
Those expecting new details about the German champion’s current life from the documentary dedicated to his first world championship victory will instead be disappointed. Corinna speaks at length, but her account is almost entirely focused on the past: from his first go-kart races in Kerpen to Michael’s arrival in Formula 1, from the explosion of “Schumi-mania” in Germany to the tragedy of Ayrton Senna, all the way to the tumultuous 1994 season that took the then-25-year-old driver to the top of the world.
“My mother was totally against it. Michael was always on the go-kart track and basically always knocked the others out. My mother would say, ‘Look at that Schumacher! They have a go-kart track at their house where they kick out anyone who does something wrong, and now he’s going around knocking people off the track!’ She always said that: ‘That Schumacher, that Schumacher…’,” Corinna recalls, reminiscing about the early days of their relationship.
