Anna Kournikova’s professional life is simple: she turns up on the tennis court – generally loses, but still earns millions anyway. Today it was revealed that the private life of the Russian star is a rather more complicated affair.
According to one of her childhood sweethearts, the woman who is a pinup to millions of men around the world is, in fact, a secret divorcee.
The astonishing claims have been made by Ms Kournikova’s former long-term boyfriend, the Russian ice hockey star Sergei Federov, 33, who says the couple got married in a clandestine register office ceremony two years ago. Shortly afterwards, they went their own separate ways in what he hinted was a bitter split.
The claims are all the more remarkable because they follow nearly two years of denials by 21-year-old Kournikova that she ever tied the knot with Federov. Speculation began after she was spotted wearing what appeared to be a wedding ring at a tennis tournament, but both she and her family insisted that no ceremony had gone ahead.
Federov, however, now appears to have lifted the lid on one of the sporting world’s best kept secrets in an interview with an American hockey magazine, in which he confirmed the rumours.
He said: “They are true. We were married, albeit briefly, and we are now divorced.” He added: “I don’t keep in touch with her.”
His claims, however, have not yet been confirmed by Kournikova herself. A statement posted on her official website last night, under the heading “I Am Not Married”, said: “While I don’t typically comment on my personal life, let me confirm once again that I am not married. I can’t be any clearer on this subject and I hope the rumours will stop. Thank you, Anna K.”
The declaration, however, spoke only in the present tense and did not directly address Federov’s claim that they had been married in the past.
While her tennis career has faltered in recent years – she has slipped from 8th to 67th in the world rankings – she currently earns nearly £10 million a year in modelling and advertising contracts, including Omega watches and Berlei bras. Her honed looks make her one of the world’s most desirable women.
It is unclear whether any of her more subsequent dates – including fellow tennis stars Nicholas Lapentti and Mark Philipoussis, and most recently the singer Enrique Iglesias – are aware that they were seeing a divorced woman.
Federov first met Anna when she was 15 in Moscow, when the pair were both emerging sports stars in their respective fields.
Both then moved to the United States to further their careers, with Federov now a £36 million star player with the Detroit Red Wings.
Rumours that the pair secretly got married in Moscow first surfaced in July 2001, when she was photographed at various tennis tournaments wearing a silver band alongside her diamond engagement ring.
At the time Federov’s mother Natalia was even quoted in some reports as saying: “It was a lovely ceremony. I am happy to be Anna’s mother-in-law.”
Kournikova’s father, though, denied all knowledge of the ceremony at the time, as did the player herself.
She met further inquiries with the challenge: “Why don’t you go and find out? I really don’t want to talk about it.” At the time of the alleged wedding the picture was further confused by reports that Kournikova had accepted a £1m diamond ring from one of Federov’s ice hockey rivals, Pavel Bure.
Kournikova did, however, have Federov’s name tattooed on her arm for some time. It is not yet known whether she has had it removed.