LA: She was at the peak of her legendary tennis career when most women settle down to become mothers.But at the age of 55 and after a string of tempestuous love affairs, Martina Navratilova has finally embraced motherhood.
She has become a parent to her girlfriend’s two young daughters, an arrangement she referred to as her ‘instantaneous family’.The gay tennis star, who won Wimbledon a record nine times, has spoken of her happiness and admitted that motherhood has changed her life.
According to the Daily Mail report, Miss Navratilova has been in a relationship with former Russian beauty queen Julia Lemigova, 41, since 2006, and the couple were first pictured together in 2009.
During an appearance on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, the sportswoman – who has been hailed as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time – said she spends most of her time in Paris, where Miss Lemigova lives with her children.
She revealed that she is poised to cut down on her travelling to spend more time with her new family.
Raising the sensitive issue of motherhood, presenter Kirsty Young said that many high-profile gay couples have had children, before asking: ‘Would you have wanted to have children, or did that coincide with your grand slam years?’
Miss Navratilova replied: ‘Pretty much, well those years are gone, I am well into the menopause now, so that ship has sailed!’
However, she added: ‘I never really got the opportunity to have a child, but I am in a relationship now with my partner and she has two girls, so I am a parent now.’
On motherhood, Miss Navratilova said: ‘It’s difficult, two girls, but it’s fun, it’s amazing.’
The star, who has had difficult relationships with ex-girlfriends including Toni Layton which ended in a legal battle, as well as another beauty queen, former Miss Texas Judy Nelson, admitted: ‘I am looking to change my life a little bit where I don’t have to travel so much. It’s instantaneous family. It’s strange because you get into a relationship and there are two kids
‘Yeah, it changes your life, there’s no doubt about that, but in a good way.’
Miss Lemigova, the daughter of a Soviet army colonel, was first seen with Miss Navratilova just weeks after she had described her girlfriend as ‘drop-dead beautiful’, and the pair have been seen wearing rings on their wedding fingers.
However, Miss Lemigova, who was the last Miss USSR before the collapse of the Soviet Union and who now runs a cosmetics business, does have a troubled past.
In 2010, French police re-opened a criminal inquiry which centres on Miss Lemigova’s tragic history.
At the heart of their investigation was the love child that Miss Lemigova gave birth to 12 years ago.
Her son, Maximilien, died in suspicious circumstances when he was five-and-a-half months old. Miss Lemikova was adamant that he was murdered and that his death was connected to that of the baby’s father, French banker Edouard Stern, a close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Multi-millionaire Stern was shot dead by another lover during a sadomasochistic sex session in 2005.
Stern was estranged from his wife, Beatrice David-Weill, with whom he had three children. He was also indulging in numerous other illicit liaisons, many of them at sadomasochistic orgies.
However, Miss Lemigova told one French journalist: ‘I knew absolutely nothing about that side.‘We had a normal relationship based on feelings.’
