Who Is Martina Navratilova’s Wife? All About Her Marriage to Julia Lemigova
Martina Navratilova has been in the spotlight for years due to her success as a tennis player, and she’s opening up with the world even more in the new Netflix doc Chris & Martina: The Final Set. Her wife, Julia Lemigova, is also no stranger to the public eye, having been a cast member on The Real Housewives of Miami from Seasons 4 to 7.
Navratilova came out as bisexual in 1981 and later clarified that she is a lesbian. She met Lemigova in 2000 and they reconnected eight years later. The women tied the knot in 2014.
Below, we rounded up everything to know about Lemigova and her relationship with the tennis legend.
Who is Julia Lemigova?
Lemigova is a Russian model who won the title of Miss USSR in 1990. She joined RHOM in 2021 and became the first cast member to be married to a woman.
The Bravo star was previously in a relationship with French banker Édouard Stern.
How did Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova meet?
Navratilova met her now-wife at a bar in 2000. At the time, Lemigova was modeling and living in Paris. “[I was] meeting all these amazing people. Famous people. Royals,” Lemigova previously told Daily Mail. “I’m not a tennis fan, but, of course, I knew who she was. And we just got chatting.”
On an episode of RHOM, Lemigova claimed she gave Navratilova “a look across the bar” that was her way of saying, “You have to come talk to me.” Navratilova “received the message,” Lemigova revealed. “She came to talk to me and introduced herself, but unfortunately, that was the end of our moment. Something could have happened, but it didn’t.”
After they both attended the French Open in 2008 and bumped into each other, Lemigova asked the athlete out to breakfast. “We had breakfast the next day, then the next day, and then the third day,” she dished. “And then she moved in.”
Navratilova proposed at the U.S. Open in 2014, and they tied the knot that December.
What is Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova’s age difference?
The women have an age difference of nearly 16 years. Lemigova was born on June 26, 1972, and just turned 54, while Navratilova was born on October 18, 1956, and will turn 70 later this year.
Do Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova have an open marriage?
No, the women do not have an open marriage. However, on RHOM, Lemigova opened up about a difficult period in their relationship where they briefly decided to open the marriage. It was during that time that she revealed that she had previously been intimate with her RHOM costar and friend Adriana de Moura.
“Martina and I have gone through ups and downs like any other couple,” Lemigova told People. “During one particularly rough time, we decided to open up our relationship. It was something we both agreed upon and explored with openness and care. But it also brought challenges that we had to face head-on.”
She clarified, “We were not in an open-open relationship, per se. It was just a pass as we gave ourselves time to figure things out. And Martina knew about everything. It wasn’t like I was hiding anything from her. Even with Adriana, I told her.”
The ladies had “difficult conversations” about the situation and it served as a “wake-up call” for them. “It made us more committed to repairing what was slightly fractured and definitely communicate better, because that’s where, maybe, the fracture started. And today, we’re in a really great place.”
Does Martina Navratilova have kids?
Yes, Navratilova and Lemigova adopted two sons in 2024. Lemigova also has two daughters from past relationships, and Navratilova is a second mother figure to them.
Lemigova shared a son with Stern, but the child died at five months old from shaken baby syndrome in 2000.
Chris & Martina: The Final Set, Streaming Now, Netflix
