Entertainment
Martina Navratilova Proposes To Longtime Partner At U.S. Open
- Carrie Weisman , Design & Trend Contributor
- Sep, 07, 2014, 06:49 PM
Martina Navratilova popped a question of her own during an interview at the U.S. Open.
Navratilova was in the middle of an interview with Ken Solomon in the Tennis Channel suite Saturday when she turned to her longtime partner Julia Lemigova, got down on one knee, and proposed. Lemigova said yes, and the moment was shown on the big screen at the stadium.
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Navratilova said, "I was very nervous. It came off, and she said yes. It was kind of an out-of-body experience. You've seen people propose at sporting events before, in movies, in real life, and here it was happening to me. So I was like watching myself do that. It was cool." The two have been together since 2006.
Oh, and then she went out and teamed with Jana Novotna to win the women's invitational doubles event. No big deal.
Lemigova will become stepmother to Navratilova's two daughters.
Navratilova has already cemented her legendary status within the tennis world. Her career singles records stands at 1,442 wins against 219 losses. She's also won 18 singles Grand Slam titles through her career, which now spans across four decades.
Navratilova was born in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) in 1957. She eventually left to pursue a career in tennis and became a citizen of the United States in 1981.
She has expanded her influence beyond the world of tennis as well. Navratilova went public after having been diagnosed with breast cancer, and went on to become a high-profile advocate for victims and survivors of the disease.
Back in 2010, she opened up to The Guardian about how to prevent homophobia from sports, saying, "Change has to come from the top. They don't allow anti-Semitic rants or whatever racist bullshit to be shouted from the stands, and they should not allow the homophobic stuff - but it seems like it is zero tolerance of all other bigoted crap, and 95% tolerance of anti-gay crap."
