FOR months Petra Ecclestone maintained a dignified silence as her ex-husband taunted her family in a series of hate-filled social media posts.

But now the daughter of motor racing billionaire Bernie ­Ecclestone has hit her ex James Stunt where it hurts — in his ego.

Socialite Petra delivered a withering statement on her Instagram page to demolish the carefully ­constructed image of the self-styled “billionaire”, who she divorced two years ago.

According to Petra, 30, James was, in fact, a kept man living off her family’s wealth as well as a fantasist obsessed with drugs and money.

She adds that his sporty “Lamborghini” was actually a kit car with a “Ford key for its ignition”.

Petra wrote: “James always had such a sick obsession with money and being perceived to be a ­independently successful billionaire.

“The trouble is he spent most of  his days in bed, high on prescription drugs.”

She also derided him for wearing a full face of make-up and pretending to be a gangster. He is, she said, a “horrible and narcissistic man”.

James, 37, was quick to respond, describing his ex-wife and her fiancé Sam Palmer, 36, as “two non-entities who can lie and dish it out but can’t handle the truth”.

One insider told The Sun they were surprised it had taken Petra so long to stand up to her ex.

The friend says: “It doesn’t make sense why she’d put up with this for so long. We couldn’t understand it.”

‘HE’S NO GANGSTER – HE’S A PRAT’

Since the couple’s bitter High Court divorce in 2017, James has launched one personal attack after another against Petra, her father, mum Slavica and new partner Sam.

Having been declared bankrupt in June then resigning as director of three companies in August, “gold bullion trader” James now occupies his time with a war of words — and has been recording late-night video attacks on his Instagram page.

In numerous short films to camera he pulls back his slick hair as he makes outlandish allegations against the Ecclestone family.

They include unsubstantiated charges that former father-in-law Bernie is a “criminal” and that his Lamborghini kit car had been “torched”.

And in an interview with society magazine Tatler in April, he called Petra a “girl who’s had a lobotomy and gone to Jonestown”, as well as calling Bernie a “dwarf” and Slavica “Lady Macbeth”.

When Petra met James on a blind date in 2006 he was a brash entrepreneur unknown to the wider world.

Their 2011 wedding was a blingy affair at Castello Odescalchi near Rome, with a £12million price tag.

Petra, who is now expecting a child with Sam, described herself as “a young and naive 23-year-old girl” at the time who did not realise the impact access to her family’s huge fortune could have on James.

She claimed: “While we were married, he had someone create a Wikipedia page stating he was a billionaire. Later, he had an entire website created, listing himself on a billionaire rich list that he then paid Google Ads to promote if anyone searched his name.

“I gave him access to money, and the more he had, the worse he became. He simply wasn’t like that in the beginning.”

The couple bought a chateau-style mansion with 123 rooms in Los Angeles for a reported £65million and James drove a string of top-of-the-range cars down its driveway.

While her older sister Tamara, 35,  enjoyed the limelight, the more reserved Petra allowed her husband to revel in the attention.

The couple had three children together, Lavinia, six, and four-year-old twins James Jnr and Andrew.

At their £70million London mansion in Chelsea there were signs that James was growing paranoid.

He drank from the same bottle of water, supposedly to avoid being poisoned, and tough restrictions were placed on food coming into the house.

All staff had to sign tight non-disclosure agreements and friends were told they could not speak about what went on in the household.

TOLD FRIENDS HE WAS 'PRINCE PHILIP'S ILLEGITIMATE SON'

Petra revealed: “Towards the end of our marriage, he had taken to wearing a full face of make-up, insisted on using a satellite phone (as apparently all of his calls were being bugged) and even told friends that he was Prince Philip’s illegitimate son.”

James denies ever saying that, but others saw him wearing foundation and lip gloss.

Whether James is in any way a “gangster” has often been discussed in the media. His godfather was notorious British gangster Terry Adams, and the two men were photographed sharing the back seat in a Rolls-Royce.

There were also questions raised about how he really earned his fortune. His assets have been frozen by the Crown Prosecution Service but no charges have ever been brought.

But Petra insists he is not some underground figure.

She wrote: “The sad reality of it is James is not a gangster — he’s a public schoolboy that likes to pretend he is from the street and related to gangsters. He’s not. He’s just a prat.”

James attended the £36,000-a-year Bradfield College and had a privileged childhood with dad Geoffrey Stunt, a publishing director, in Surrey.

But according to his former wife, James is not the money-generating wheeler-dealer he claims.

Instead, the bankrupt businessman was loaned £10million by Bernie.

Petra, who is worth a reported £270million, declared: “Naively, I funded his life for our entire marriage and paid for his cars, his watches, his art (the few real ones), even his failed company.”

The sly dig about the art refers to allegations he loaned fake paintings to one of Prince Charles’ charities in Scotland.

In the divorce, Petra got custody of the children and took them to live with her in the US.

This is a sore point for James, who often tells his Instagram followers what a great dad he is.

But Petra claimed the opposite is true, saying: “We have three wonderful children together but sadly he has never taken an interest in them.

“I have never once tried to stop him seeing his children. However, the court did order that he would need to pass a drugs test — something he’s never been able to do.”

James has admitted to being hooked on Valium in the past.

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But despite posting incoherent messages on Instagram, he says he has cleaned up his act.

Now much of his bitterness is aimed at Petra’s fiancé Sam, who is a director at  Maddox art gallery in West Hollywood.

In return, Sam has called James a “coward” for failing to answer any of his 35 calls. James responded this week by challenging Sam to meet him face to face.

So it seems unlikely that Petra’s Instagram post — now removed — will draw a line under the feud.

But that is what she hopes for, stating:  “I am a pregnant mum of three and I just want to be able to get on with my life.”

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