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Despite Going Through Tumultuous Relationships, Chris Evert Once Detailed Grateful Approach Towards Life: ‘Haven’t Had a Lot of Pain’

Published Oct 15, 2022 | 8:00 AM EDT

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Stardom does not assure a complete sense of security or a free pass to a happy life. Similarly, Chris Evert might have had a great life and personally, she always felt that she did not have any severe adversity that she had to face. But that did not make her immune from the ups and downs of life. She talked about how divorce from her first husband, John Lloyd, affected her and the way she learned to grow out of it.

The 18-time grand slam champion had a glorious on and off-court life, but she also had to face difficulties that come along with being a human.

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Chris Evert made a confession about the trials of her life

The tennis legend Chris Evert lived a glorious life in the eyes of common people. However, that is not all. Evert talked about the most vulnerable time of her life, though she also mentioned that she has had a relatively good life. She said, “I’ve lived a charmed life. The toughest time in my life so far has been when I divorced John Lloyd. I had to deal with the fact that he is a great guy and a great husband, and there is nothing wrong with him.” The 18-time grand slam champion had married fellow tennis player John Lloyd in 1979. However, they got divorced in 1987, after eight years of their marriage when they could not find happiness together.

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Evert confessed that she had to find answers to a lot of questions she did not know the answer to. She said, “I had to do a lot of soul-searching for about two years: What’s wrong with this relationship? How come I’m feeling the way I am? How come I’m not happy? And then the hurting. If I did hurt him, that hurt me a lot.” 

WATCH THIS STORY: Chris Evert says tennis players like Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard will always get attention because they are good looking

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However, being a humble player, she downplayed the rough time she had to go through. In fact, she found the better in it. She said, “You learn about yourself through those experiences. It’s not that I’ve regretted not having adversity or not having pain in my life, because I’ve had such a good life.” She concluded by saying, “I don’t want to wish too hard, because then it will happen, but I think you grow and learn through pain. And I haven’t had a lot of pain.” 

Evert and her three failed marriages

The American player is America’s pride and whenever she played, her fans could not help but root for her. She had an astounding career on the court, however, that was not the case for her relationships. After getting divorced from John Lloyd, the player married an alpine skier, Andy Mill. She had three boys with him. She was leading a happy life when she met golfer and entrepreneur Greg Norman and ended up marrying him. However, this marriage was the shortest of them all. They divorced each other after one year of their marriage.

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After this, Evert worked on herself and took therapy. She unlearned the behaviors that were causing her hurt and pain. Now, Evert focuses on her personal life and spends time with her sons. Apart from that, she stays connected to the sport by working as a tennis analyst for ESPN and as a sports commentator.

Written by:

Shivali Sharma

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Shivali Sharma is a tennis author at EssentiallySports. She has pursued her Master's in history from Himachal University, but her love for the game has driven her to write about tennis. Shivali is a huge fan of Naomi Osaka and admires Osaka not only for her on-court performances, but also for her off-court actions.
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Edited by:

Ajinkya Aswale