Max Mosley dead: F1 boss, son of fascist leader & enemy of press exposed over prostitute orgy dies of cancer at 81
ENEMY of the free press and ex-Formula One boss Max Mosley has died aged 81.
The millionaire, whose Hitler sympathiser dad Oswald led the British fascist movement, was famously filmed at a sadomasochistic orgy with prostitutes.
His family today confirmed he died last night after a long battle with cancer.
Mosley dedicated his life waging war against the press after the News of the World revealed in 2008 he took part in the sex party.
A five-hour recording of the orgy showed the tycoon surrounded by prostitutes in military gear performing sadistic acts.
But a judge ruled in favour of Mosley there was no Nazi element to the orgy, as the newspaper had claimed, and that the story was not in the public interest.
He decided that although the young women “victims” wore striped pyjamas they were not necessarily Nazi-related clothes.
This led Mosley to pump millions of pounds into anti-press campaigns as part of his crusade against newspapers.
He bankrolled a new press regulator, Impress, and launched a bid to gag the press from ever speaking about his orgy.
Mosley was also president of Formula One and other international motorsports in his role at the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).
Bernie Ecclestone, who was also head of F1, today led tributes to Mosley after he died at his Chelsea home yesterday.
He said: “He died last night. He was like family to me. We were like brothers. I am pleased in a way because he suffered for too long.”
Mosley was also a barrister and amateur racing driver but he struggled to shake off his father’s reputation and links to fascism.
Sir Oswald Mosley achieved notoriety in the 1930s as the leader of the extreme Right-wing British Union of Fascists.
The hate-filled party aligned itself with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler and saw Mosley’s brutish band of Blackshirts terrorising Britain’s Jewish community.
Oswald’s wedding to Lady Mitford was even attended by ‘special guest’ Hitler and took place in the home of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
Max Mosley had always denied being involved in violence on behalf of his dad’s party and claims he broke from them in 1963.
But he was pictured at rallies alongside his father and was arrested in 1962 as neo-fascists marched through the Jewish quarter in Hackney chanting “Jews Out”.
He was charged with threatening behaviour, but acquitted at magistrates’ court the next day when he argued he was defending his father.
Mosley was the youngest son of Oswald Mosley and spent most of his youth travelling around Europe and spending winters in Ireland.
When his parents were jailed after the war, he was sent to Stein an der Traun in Germany for two years aged 13 where he learnt fluent German.
After arriving back in the UK, Mosley attended Millfield school in Somerset and later studied physics at Christ Church at Oxford University.
In 1960, he wed wife Jean, who stuck by his side after his sex shame, and the couple went on to have two children together.
After rejecting a career as a physicist, Mosley began studying law and qualified as a barrister in 1964.
But it was a spur of the moment trip to Silverstone that sent his career down an entirely different path.
Mosley began teaching law in the evenings so he could save up and start racing cars himself – later going on to compete in over 40 races.
But he retired from racing in 1969 after deciding it was “evident” he was never going to be World Champion.
Mosley stuck to the background of motor racing and went on to become one of F1’s most influential ever figures.
With the help of eccentric tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, he went on to build the sport into a global brand.
