She’s widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time – but now, sadly, Martina Navratilova is preparing for a different kind of fight.
Yesterday the 66-year-old sports star announced that she has been diagnosed with breast and throat cancer.
Wimbledon’s greatest singles champion of all-time discovered a swollen lymph node in her neck in November while attending the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.
After a series of tests on her neck, doctors determined that Martina’s breast cancer had returned. The star was cleared of a non-invasive form of breast cancer in 2010 after undergoing radiation treatment.
Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova attended the 2017 Pre-GRAMMY Gala
In the hours following the announcement, tennis stars including Billie Jean King took to social media to show their support for Martina.
But as the world gathers around one of the biggest sports stars of her generation, Martina will no doubt have the support of her wife of seven, Julia Lemigova, 50.
Here, FEMAIL explores how Julia braved her own personal tragedy and rose from being the very last beauty queen of Miss USSR to starring on the hit series Real Housewives of Miami.
Born in Moscow in 1972, Julia’s father is said to have been a colonel in the Soviet Army.
Julia Lemigova pictured preparing for Miss Universe in 1991 after winning Miss USSR
Left: Julia Lemigova at the age of 18. Right: Julia works as a model after her Miss USSR win
Speaking to the Chron in 2015, the mother-of-two explained that her father also worked as an engineer in the airline industry – which is how he met her mother.
She described her pleasant, middle-class upbringing: “I had a good education and my parents were very cultured. There were always trips to the theater or the Bolshoi.”
However, Julia dreamed of living in the West and says she sold trinkets outside of hotels in Moscow to use for plane tickets.
In 1990, Julia, who was only 18 at the time, was the last woman to be crowned Miss USSR. The following year, she placed third in the Miss Universe pageant and moved to London.
Julia also says that it wasn’t until she was an adult that she realized what it meant to be gay.
The couple (pictured having dinner with their dog) first met in 2000 at a gay bar in Paris
Julia with her castmates from Real Housewives of Miami at the season five premiere
“I grew up in Russia and didn’t know it existed,” she added. “Nobody talked about it. I must have been 17 or 18 – I had already moved to London – before I knew same-sex relationships existed.”
During her years in London, Julia stayed at the Chelsea home of celebrity heiress Caroline St George and was a guest of Tory politician Lord Lambton at his Tuscan villa.
In the mid-1990s she had moved to Paris to open her own spa and befriended financier Sir James Goldsmith for business advice.
In 1997, she began a passionate affair with a wealthy friend of Sir James, Edouard Stern, a confidant of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Stern was estranged from his wife, Beatrice David-Weill, with whom he had three children. Three years later Julia gave birth to her son Maximilien.
Julia shared a son with Edouard Stern (pictured), who was killed by his lover in 2005 after a sadomasochistic sex session. Julia remains adamant that her baby Maximilien was “murdered” by a nanny he employed while in his care
Julia says Martina helped her get through the heartbreak of losing her first child
Following their separation, Julia’s son – who was the subject of a custody battle – died of Shaken Baby Syndrome in the care of Edouard’s Bulgarian nanny Maya.
Shortly after his death, Maya disappeared and Julia always insisted that her son be murdered.
At the time of the baby’s death, the authorities’ official stance was that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. Despite the case’s reopening in 2010, the circumstances of her son’s final hours remain a mystery.
In 2005, Edouard was shot dead by his lover Cécile Brossard during a sadomasochistic sex session.
Speaking to Page Six last year, Julia explained: “I don’t know if I ever fully survived the loss of my son.
“A part of me is dead forever. I just didn’t want to live back then. Selfishly I wanted to end my life so many times. I wanted to join my son. I wanted to leave.’
Former tennis star Martina Navratilova proposed marriage to Julia Lemigova in 2014 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York
Julia Lemigova (pictured left) in a bathing suit during the Miss Universe pageant in 1991 and (right) Martina Navratilova in action at Wimbledon the previous year
At the time, Julia says, she was still struggling with her sexuality and “couldn’t imagine holding another woman’s hand on the street.”
After Max’s tragic death, Julia had daughters Victoria, 22, and Emma, 15, but they separated from their unnamed fathers.
However, she says Martina has slowly given her the confidence to show her affection in public. The couple first met in a gay bar in Paris in 2000 before crossing paths again eight years later at the French Open.
After crossing paths in the player’s restaurant, the two made an appointment for breakfast the next day and were inseparable from then on.
In addition, Julia says that her personal tragedy has brought the couple closer together.
The couple on a tennis court in 2022. Martina captioned the picture: “Fun in the sun.”
Martina and Julia with daughters Victoria and Emma in November 2014
She told the Mail: “I told Martina, and very early on. It was part of me – my pain, my sadness. My loss accompanies me every day, every moment of the day. I shared that with her.’
However, it wasn’t until the couple moved to Miami that Julia said she found the confidence to keep her partner’s wife in the public eye.
During her appearance on BBC’s Desert Island Discs in 2012, Martina explained how she had become a second mother to Julia’s two daughters and found an “instant family”.
She told host Kirsty Young: “I’ve never really had the opportunity to have a child but I’m in a relationship now with my partner and she has two girls so I’m a parent now. It’s difficult, two girls, but it’s fun, it’s amazing.
In 2014, Martina proposed to Julia at the US Open and the couple married just three months later in a small ceremony in New York attended by Brooke Shields and tennis pro Chris Evert.
In 2021, Julia became the first openly gay woman to appear in the Real Housewives franchise.
Navratilova and Lemigova live in Miami with their two daughters, five Belgian Malinois dogs, turtles and a cat, the New York Times reports.
During her first show, Julia gushed, “I never met a soul mate until I met Martina.”
Julia told Page Six why she wanted to do the reality show: “I’m excited to share my life with Martina – how we live, our family, our children and our interaction with the animals on the farm.
“I have the amazing opportunity to show that love has no gender and love is love.”
After Martina made her cancer diagnosis public yesterday, Julia shared a recent photo of her and her wife on Instagram.
She captioned it: “Thank you to everyone who reached out to share words of support. Together we will fight against it.”
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