Back in 1976, James Hunt and rival Niki Lauda were both battling it out for the F1 world title, with the season that year heading down to the final race. In Japan, a third placed finish saw Hunt claim the only F1 championship of his career, with Lauda having had to retire during the race in Tokyo.

Sadly, Hunt passed away in 1993 at the age of just 45-years-old, dying of a heart attack. But, Hunt’s playboy antics lives on thanks to the countless stories there are about him, including the one about him using his good looks to charm women at the Tokyo Hilton prior to his 1976 title win.

While he was well known for his womanising ways, there were women in Hunt’s life that did, or at least tried to tame the blonde haired lothario. Back in 1974, Hunt met his first wife, British model Suzy Miller, whom he proposed to just weeks after meeting.

However, their marriage would not last long. Come the end of 1975, Miller ended up leaving Hunt for actor Richard Burton, leaving Hunt very much single following their divorce.

James Hunt with his first wife, Suzy Miller, at the British Grand Prix in 1974 (Image: Getty Images)Hunt went on to marry Sarah Lomax after Miller (Image: Getty Images)

Fast forward to 1982 and Hunt then met his second wife Sarah Lomax, with the pair also marrying a year later, just as he did with Miller. Their marriage resulted in them having two children, Tom and Freddie. However, they would go on to separate and later divorce due to Hunt’s infidelity.

In 2013, the Ron Howard directed Formula One film, ‘Rush’, detailing Hunt and Lauda’s rivalry released to much acclaim. However, the film did garner some criticism, specifically from Hunt’s family. Earlier this year, Freddie Hunt, who is a racer himself, appeared on the Pitstop YouTube channel, claiming Hollywood A-list Chris Hemsworth portrayed his father like a “t***”.

Freddie Hunt was not happy about how his father was portrayed in RushRush detailed the rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt (Image: Getty Images)

Hunt said: “Chris Hemsworth’s performance, now I don’t know whether I should be upset with Chris or Ron Howard, because he basically played dad like a ‘t***’. I don’t know if that’s down to his poor acting or he was direct to play that way. Daniel Bruhl, who played Niki Lauda did an absolute masterpiece.

“He actually asked Niki if he could spend some time with him so he could learn his mannerisms and really get to know him. What did Hemsworth do in contrast? F*** all. He didn’t contact the family once.”

Hunt was known to be quite the womaniser

After his divorce from Lomax in the late 80s, Hunt soon after met Helen Dyson, whom he would become engaged to tragically the day before his heart attack in 1993. And Dyson was also critical of the 2013 film too. Speaking to the Mail following the release of Rush, which almost glorified Hunt’s antics, she claimed the one-time Formula One champion would have been horrified by the portrayal of him.

“James would be horrified by that period of his life being the subject of a film,” she said. “He used to refer to that time as ‘my seedy past’. It wasn’t a happy time for him, and he was so ashamed of it all.”