Daphne McKinley: Ex-wife of Formula 1 legend Guy Edwards battles to keep her fortune

A former airman who became a millionaire divorcee’s handyman and then ended up in her bed is demanding a slice of her £10 million fortune.

Jason Patrick, 44, claims he and Daphne McKinley — the ex-wife of Formula 1 racing driver Guy Edwards — had plans to marry. He told a court they exchanged Claddagh rings to seal their engagement after he proposed, and that she loved him so much she was the first to suggest marriage.

But the former model dismisses him as a fantasist. She admits they had an “on-off boyfriend/girlfriend relationship” for five years but insists he was “a kept man” or “jobbing worker” out to “try and get some money from her”.

Mr Patrick is suing Mrs McKinley, 59, for allegedly breaking promises that they would share profits from property. He wants about £3.5 million related to three houses whose refurbishment he claims he managed: Faylands House near Henley, a home in Sutton, and a villa in Cap d’Ail on the Côte d’Azur.

Mr Patrick, who said he had worked for the RAF, began helping out at Faylands House in 2003. Mrs McKinley says she made it clear “theirs was a relationship of employer-employee who became good friends and companions, with the occasional intimacy or sex”.

He initially lived above the garage but moved into the main house. Mr Patrick claims they had a “whirlwind ro-mance” and lived “as man and wife” but that their love began to unravel in 2010 when she refused to put him on the deeds of a new home in Knightsbridge. He claims they had planned to settle there after Faylands was sold for £6.75 million in 2008.