Sir Stirling Moss’s widow dies ‘of a broken heart’, her family reveal: Susie Paine passes away aged just 69, barely three years after the motor racing legend’s own death at 90
- Susie Moss died this week aged 69, barely three years after her husband passed
- Sister Tina has claimed Susie’s death owed more to grief rather than ill-health
The widow of late British racing driver Sir Stirling Moss has died of a broken heart, according to her older sister.
Lady Susie Moss, née Paine, died this week aged 69 following a protracted period of ill health, barely three years after Sir Stirling passed aged 90.
But sister Tina told the Daily Mail that Susie’s death owed more to grief than to any clinical condition.
‘My beloved sister died of a broken heart,’ Tina, wife of ebullient retail tycoon Sir Philip Green, said amid floods of tears.
‘She never recovered after Stirling left us. Their marriage was the greatest love story I have ever known.’
Stirling Moss and wife Susie Stirling Moss Chopard Watch are pictured together at the Chopard Watch launch event, Vienna, Austria – 24 Apr 2012
Stirling Moss and Susie Moss attend the Cartier Style & Luxury Lunch Reception at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 1, 2012 in Chichester, England
Susie Moss, wife of late Sir Stirling Moss, is pictured sitting in her husband’s racing car listening at Goodwood Revival festival, Chichester, UK – 18 Sep 2021
50-year-old former racing driver Stirling Moss pictured with his 27-year-old bride Susie after their London wedding, April 17, 1980
Few who knew the couple would disagree. Despite the disparity in their ages and Sir Stirling’s undimmed appetite for ‘crumpet’ – his appreciative term for beautiful women – the marriage was an intensely happy one, and was blessed with the birth of his only son, Elliot, months after their wedding in 1980.
Their union lasted for nearly four decades, in vivid contrast to his first two marital excursions.
The first, to Canadian brewing heiress Kate Molson, ended after three years, while the second, to American Elaine Barbarino, with whom he had a daughter, Allison, endured just a year longer.
‘The age gap didn’t matter,’ Susie told the Daily Mail after Sir Stirling’s death.
‘I never thought about it because, to me, he was never old. He was always such fun.’
Her self-confidence equipped her to cope with the attention he always received.
‘Women threw themselves at him,’ acknowledged Susie.
The couple lived in Mayfair, just a stone’s throw from swanky private members’ club 5 Hertford Street, at the house which Sir Stirling designed and equipped with a treasury of gadgets.
Susie remained there after his death – sleeping close to the urn containing his ashes.
‘She has gone far too soon,’ Lady Green says. ‘We will miss her terribly.’
Stirling Moss is pictured at the Formula One Grand Prix of Italy, Monza, September 11, 1955
Stirling Moss of Britain raises his hand in victory after passing the finish line in first place at the Monaco Grand Prix Automobile race on May 14, 1961
Stirling and Susie Moss are pictured together at the Louis Vuitton Dinner at the Hurlingham Club on June 3, 2000
Sir Stirling’s passing in April 2020 was the result of a long battle against a chest infection he caught in Singapore just before Christmas 2016.
Moss’s fame was secured in the years after the Second World War by his style and skill that earned him acclaim as the greatest all-round racer ever, and the best Formula One driver never to win a championship.
His versatility won him 212 of his 529 races in every conceivable kind of car, and his failure to score a Formula One world championship was owed to his preference for British machinery and acts of conspicuous sportsmanship that denied him the chance.
He would also rather win a race than play the percentages for the sake of the title. Between 1955 and 1961, he was championship runner-up on four occasions and third three times.
Among Moss’s greatest victories were the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, in which he triumphed in his Lotus against the faster Ferraris, and the 1955 Mille Miglia – where he set a new course record in the famous 1,000-mile race around Italy.
Moss’s career at the top level of motorsport racing came to an end in 1962, when he was aged just 32.
He was effectively forced to retire following a crash at Goodwood that left him in a coma for a month and partially paralysed for six months, depriving the world of witnessing what he could have achieved had he remained in the sport.
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