Delta Darling F1

Falling Apart

The marriage not a noble incident in James's life, but when I read about James's first marriage, I felt like he was a well-meaning twit who got himself into a high-stakes mess and avoided fixing it because he didn't want to hurt anyone.

James and Suzy lived together in Marbella, where James had bought a house for tax reasons and where he never felt especially happy. He missed England and his family and friends. James's parents visited and even his mother commented on how absent James was. Speaking of Suzy, she said "[s]he is absolutely gorgeous. Just a super girl, most of his girls are. But I can see that for James to be married isn't possible. His lifestyle doesn't suit it. I'm bound to say I love him dearly, but I'd hate to have him for a husband."

Suzy didn't enjoy being at races and James didn't much like having her there. He insisted that conquests on race weekends were just a distraction (though he had lots of them - there's a famous joke I can't find a source for, attributed to Jackie Stewart, that Niki Lauda owed thanks to <insert long list of feminine names here> because without them, James Hunt would have won more races).

Of their marriage, James later said

I am very much into racing and doing my own thing, and I move very fast. Suzy wanted the reverse; a slow pace, a good solid base, and a solid relationship. Ironically, the very things I married her for in the first place.

Which - not great for them, but I respect that James never tried to pretend he hadn't done something stupid when he got married the first time. Also, props to him for acknowledging that Suzy didn't change, or fail to deliver on the promise of their relationship; James made a bad decision.

Things weren't working, and they both knew it, and before too long, James started looking for ways to politely end things. He suggested he could pay for a flat for Suzy in London, and give her an allowance, so they could live apart. But she didn't want to take that step yet. By mid-1975, they were living separate lives for the most part but hadn't publicly split up.

At least until Christmas.

Christmas 1975

Bear with me on this, btw - it's a long story.

Once upon a time, I was browsing the Autosport forums on a lore hunt and someone had replied to a thread, asking if anyone else remembered Herbert Völker (one of Niki's favourite Austrian motorsport journalists) saying that James and Niki had once spent Christmas together because they were snowed in. No one had anything to add, but I was OBSESSED. I am the person who wrote Lonely This Christmas, a webbonso get-together fic about being stranded together in a storm at Christmas. My favourite tropes are forced proximity, only one bed, and anything wintery. This piece of lore was designed for me.

I started digging and found almost nothing. I scoured James's Autosport columns and figured that 1977 was plausible - James mentions a cancelled flight close to Christmas, and Austria is one of the countries he mentions visiting in December. But nothing was definitive, and I figured I would never know.

Then I got the flu, and was miserable for a week, and didn't spend any money because I couldn't get out of bed. And I decided that as a treat, I would order myself a copy of Grand Prix Story 1976, which tends to run pretty pricey. No English version was available but I figured I had Google Translate and nothing to do til I got over the stupid flu, so I ordered.

For those of you who haven't heard of it, Grand Prix Story was a book released annually (typically in time for Christmas - whole generations of German-speaking F1 fans remember looking forward to getting it among their gifts). Each volume summarised the previous F1 season, but with behind the scenes reporting, as the author was one of the F1 press pack.

Heinz Prüller. Another of Niki Lauda's favourite Austrian motorsports journalists.

I wasn't expecting anything about the Christmas Lore, but I found it. The poster on Autosport hadn't gotten it quite right, but he was pretty close.

Niki had been booked to appear at a racing car show in Zagreb, Croatia, in December 1975. He invited James along, figuring James could make a few appearances and hang out. (James's appearance fee was still quite low, Prüller reports).

Because the airport remains "closed", Hunt hangs around in Zagreb, spends a few happy days with Lauda, arrives three hours late for a signing because of a hangover [...] It was a close call - he and Lauda almost spend Christmas together.

-Heinz Prüller, Grand Prix Story 1976, translation via Google

Fuck that almost, but at least I had my lore. That's the first piece of slashy James and Niki lore I promised - they almost spent Christmas together, and I have always wondered if the quotation marks around the "closed" airport mean that the airport was fine and they just wanted to hang out for a few days. They did regularly visit each other between races and in the off seasons.

What does all of this have to do with James and Suzy's marriage?

Well, they had planned to spend Christmas together with friends, in the very fancy Swiss ski resort of Gstaad, which was largely attended by the rich and famous. James barely made his flight to Gstaad from Zagreb, as the fog only lifted on Christmas Eve, so he did manage to spend Christmas with his wife.

And Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Burton Effect

Burton and Taylor were, at the time, two of the biggest movie stars in the world, with serious acting credentials on top of their ridiculous levels of beauty. As well as their work, and their looks, they were famous for marrying a lot, including each other, twice. They have two diamonds named after them, the Burton-Taylor Diamond and the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, both bought for Taylor by Burton. They were glamorous and dark and stunning, and I can only imagine how James Hunt from Belmont felt in such company.

And Richard Burton fell in love with Suzy Hunt at first sight, when he saw her on a ski lift.

James was... not terribly sad about this.

He went to Brazil soon after Christmas to prepare for the Brazilian Grand Prix (which wasn't until the 25th January, but you do you, James), while Richard and Suzy went their separate ways for about a week. Richard then arranged for Suzy to visit New York (under the pretext that she was visiting a mutual friend who just happened to be staying in the same hotel as Richard Burton). He and Suzy stayed in close touch on the phone. They both brushed off questions from the press, saying they were still together but things weren't good, and they would meet when James wasn't so busy with racing.

They did meet, both in New York before the Long Beach Grand Prix in late March 1976, and after the non-championship race at Silverstone in April. James stayed with his parents for a while when he raced at Brands Hatch in early March, and as soon as he left, his mother was asked by journalists what she thought of her daughter-in-law spending time with a man like Richard Burton. Sue Hunt (James's mother, as distinct from Suzy Hunt - paging Dr. Freud) said she wasn't wild about the idea, but that Suzy was "a delight" and stressed how fond she was of her. James's mum said that sometimes marriages just can't work out and that her son "had always been an odd fellow." The story of James's marriage even overshadowed Niki rocking up to the paddock with a new wife, Marlene Knaus, when last anyone had heard, he was in a seven-year relationship with Austrian heiress Mariella Reininghaus. James claimed the publicity was great for his career, but he did eventually get sick of being painted as the loser who was thrown over.

After Silverstone, James and Suzy agreed their marriage couldn't be saved, and he told her that if she could be happy with Richard Burton, he would never stand in her way (he also told her that if it fell apart, she would have a place with James if she needed it). Richard agreed to cover the marriage settlement that James would otherwise have had to pay Suzy (James was less rich than he seemed, a statement that remained true for most of his life), and James said Richard called himself James's father-in-law and the two of them got on well.

Suzy Miller Hunt and Richard Burton in Gstaad on 1st January 1977. Photos by Bernard Laforet.

Aftermath

Suzy Miller Hunt and Richard Burton divorced their partners in Haiti in June 1976 (foreign nationals could get a divorce there in one day - James later had some paperwork to do to confirm his divorce under British law so he could marry his second wife Sarah Lomax, the mother of his sons). They married each other in August 1976 and stayed together until 1982. Richard Burton had alcohol addiction issues for much of his life, and many health problems, and though Suzy loved him, she reached a breaking point with being married to him. Burton got married again (of course he did) to a woman named Sally Hay, who was with him til he died.

On his death, Sally Hay called Suzy to tell her, and Suzy was distraught. James heard the news while he was commentating on the Grand Prix at which Niki won his third title. He tried to call Suzy from the circuit to condole with her, but couldn't reach her for a few days.

James with Suzy and Richard at the Mayfair Club in December 1976, looking cordial. Photo by Mike Maloney

Suzy later married an American millionaire and seemed to find happiness. She was played in RUSH by Olivia Wilde, and at the time of the film's release (which she didn't get involved in) she was reported to be living on Ibiza (where Niki also lived for some of the year at that time, as did Marlene Lauda. I hope the three of them shared some memories, at least once). She and James parted, and stayed, on good terms, albeit not close ones, for the rest of his life.

PS

BUT. I promised two interesting, slashy pieces of Niki lore.

Now, I spend a lot of time looking through old photos for F1 lore (everyone needs a hobby and I hate the gym). And sometimes they are mis-dated. I spent ages trying to work out why there is a photo of Niki and Luca Montezemolo at the Nurburgring on 1st August 1976 (the day of Niki's crash) when Luca has said repeatedly in interviews that he wasn't there, and flew in after the crash. I figured he would know, since Niki was his closest friend and he was at the hospital with Niki's family for much of the week that followed. Eventually I figured out the photo was from a year prior, the 1975 Germany Grand Prix, based on everyone's outfits. So if a photo seems implausible, the date being wrong is often the simplest explanation, especially when decades have passed between the photo being taken and uploaded.

Heinz Prüller doesn't mentioned where Niki went when James left Zagreb for Gstaad. That was the winter Niki was dating Marlene (they married in spring) and that boy was obsessed. I'd be amazed if he hadn't wangled an invitation to celebrate with her family, so he could obsess about her in closer proximity (plus, he always loved Marlene's family, remaining close with them even after the divorce). I always assumed he went to Ibiza, where Marlene's family lived, or to his own family in Vienna, or maybe even to his fiance Mariella in Salzburg (Marlene and Mariella...overlapped, to put it politely, and Niki was never very clear about exactly when he ended his engagement to Mariella).

Anyway, I recently found a cute photo of Niki skiing. No scars, so it's pre-crash. And it was taken in Gstaad. No great surprise - it was the place to be seen in winter back in those days.

But the date.

Was Christmas Day, 1975.

Could be nothing. Most likely nothing. Most likely the photo was misdated.