‘Michael is here – different, but here’: Schumacher’s wife gives rare update on F1 icon eight years after near-fatal brain injury

Corinna Schumacher says her husband shows her "how strong he is every day" and details in a new interview that he expressed hesitancy about skiing the route in the French Alps which led to his near-fatal accident in 2013.

Corinna, who has been married to the seven-time Formula One world champion since 1995, opened up on her husband's condition almost eight years after he nearly lost his life in a high-speed off piste accident on December 29, 2013. 

The 52-year-old's health status has been a closely-guarded secret ever since, with only vague updates as to his condition being released to the public in the years which followed, but speaking in a brand new Netflix documentary about her husband Corinna Schumacher revealed that she "misses Michael every day" as he continues to grapple with the life-altering brain injury.

"I have never blamed God for what happened. It was just really bad luck – all the bad luck anyone can have in life," said Corinna in the documentary scheduled for release on September 15. 

"It's always terrible when you say, 'Why is this happening to Michael or us?' But then why does it happen to other people? Of course, I miss Michael every day. But it's not just me who misses him.

"I mean, everybody misses Michael, but Michael is here. Different, but he's here and that gives us strength, I find.

"I think that he is simply very strong mentally. Extremely strong. He still shows me how strong he is every day."

Schumacher has not been seen in public in the years since the accident but reports online indicate that more than $25 million has been spent on 24-hour care for the racing legend at their homes in Switzerland and Spain. 

Hopes for Schumacher's future were stoked recently by former boss at Ferrari, Jean Todt, who is one of the few people to have been granted access to Schumacher and indicated this week that he expects the German's health to "slowly and surely improve". 

Schumacher suffered the injury when he fell while skiing and struck his head on a rock. He was initially lucid, per reports, but soon lost consciousness and was placed into a medically induced coma for six months. A 2019 update confirmed that he was making "good progress" but that he was still "struggling to communicate". 

The documentary is also understood to contain footage of Schumacher in the Alps prior to the accident in which he expresses his concern at the state of the snow on the fateful route.

"The snow is not ideal, we could fly to Dubai," he says in the footage.

And as for what life is like in the Schumacher household nowadays, Corinna says that much of her day is spent ensuring that her husband is comfortable.

"We’re together. We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make him comfortable," she says.

"And to simply make him feel our family, our bond. And no matter what, I will do everything I can. We all will.

"We try to carry on a family as Michael liked it and still does. And we are getting on with our lives. 'Private is private', as he always said. It is very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible.

"Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael."

Schumacher's son Mick, 22, has continued the family tradition in Formula One and also tells the documentary of his sadness at not being able to bond over shared experiences with his legendary father.

"Since the accident these [family] experiences, these moments that I believe many people have with their parents are no longer present, or to a lesser extent, and in my view that is a little unfair," the Haas driver says.

"I think dad and me, we would understand each other in a different way now simply because we speak a similar language, the language of motorsport, and that we would have much more to talk about.

"And that’s where my head is most of the time, thinking that would be so cool. I would give up everything just for that."