Silent wife only learned of 'spankings' in newspaper

The answer, from Mr Mosley himself, was that she didn't have to. He kept his sado-masochist interests to himself, he said. Even after 48 years of marriage, she knew nothing about it until she read the News of the World article headlined F1 Boss Has Sick Nazi Orgy With Five Hookers.

That piece of evidence was an important part of Mr Mosley's case. The damage to his reputation caused by revelations about his sex life was one thing, but that his wife found out through reading a newspaper was very much another. It magnified the damage enormously, the judge was invited to conclude.

Some might feel the News of the World had done Mrs Mosley a favour. What kind of marriage was it, if for nearly half a century Mr Mosley had kept from his wife his longings for spanking sessions with women in military uniform? Did he have to conceal the scars we now know must have resulted from the punishment he so enthusiastically enjoyed?

Mrs Mosley would be the last to shed light on this. If she has uttered a word about her husband, no record survives. Indeed, while Mr Mosley has one of the highest public profiles in sport, Jean Mosley remains silent and almost invisible. She is said to spend most of her time at their Monaco home, occasionally staying at their mews house in Chelsea. A veteran Formula1 correspondent said: "I have never seen her at a race. Bernie Ecclestone's wife is often there and Ron Dennis's wife puts in an appearance. When Max attends social events on the Formula1 circuit he tends to go alone."

The couple come from quite different backgrounds. Max was the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, the pre-Second World War fascist leader supported by Hitler and Mussolini. Sir Oswald called his political party the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists. Many bracketed his followers with the Nazis and he and his wife, Diana, a Mitford sister, were interned during the war.

Afterwards, Sir Oswald attempted to put distance between himself and the National Socialists and founded Union Movement. The new party espoused unity between the nations of Europe, but most observers saw it as a crudely rebranded version of Sir Oswald's fascist party. He campaigned in areas of London where many immigrant and Jewish families lived and Union Movement was suspected of harbouring closet Nazis. One loyal adherent was Sir Oswald's son, Max.

He was born in 1940 and, according to family lore, was taken from his mother's breast by Special Branch men who arrested her as a suspected Nazi sympathiser. After the war Max was sent to schools in Europe. In Germany, asked what his father did, he replied: "Fascistenfuhrer!" In post-war Germany, this was not entirely welcome.

As Sir Oswald tried to make Union Movement a political force in the Fifties, Max was a willing helper. A contemporary recalls Max going out at night to paint the party emblem, a lightning flash in a circle, on walls in London. It was through Union Movement that Max met his wife.

Jean Marjorie Taylor was the attractive daughter of a policeman from Streatham. At 18, her friends included a member of the Union Movement youth wing. She was serious and intelligent and captivated Sir Oswald's young male followers.

When they held a party in London, one weekend in 1959, she was introduced to Max, at 19 a year her senior. One of London's more eligible bachelors, he was tall, with reddishblonde hair and an engaging grin. His father was the sixth baronet whose first marriage had been to Lady Cynthia Curzon, daughter of Lord Curzon. King George V and Queen Mary attended their wedding.

Max's mother, Diana, had been married to Baron Moyne, a Guinness heir. Despite her pre-war affection for Hitler - he attended her marriage to Sir Oswald at the Berlin home of his propaganda chief Josef Goebbels - Diana's friends included leading figures among London society.

Jean appeared unfazed by this. Her engagement was announced in The Daily Telegraph on 13 June 1960 and the couple married less than four weeks later at Chelsea town hall.

Photographs show a happy family group, with a beaming Sir Oswald and his wife apparently delighted with the match. Max was studying physics at Oxford and had no clear idea of what career he would follow.

Then Jean was given two tickets for motor racing at Silverstone. She and Max went and, from that moment, he was hooked on the sport. After an unimpressive career as a driver, he founded the more successful March racing team. A career in Formula 1 culminated in his present position, president of the Federation International d'Automobile, motorsport's governing body.

This role, the News of the World argued, made his predilections and activities matters of public interest. With today's ruling, that proposition has been expensively - and probably irretrievably - lost.