Former tennis world No 1 Martina Navratilova and her wife Julia Lemigova have adopted two young boys, agent Mary Greenham told the PA news agency. Navratilova said: “We are over the moon, recognising the challenges and the rewards for everybody.” The Real Housewives of Miami star Lemigova revealed during the show’s fifth season in 2022 that the pair had plans for adoption early on.
However, Navratilova’s breast and throat cancer diagnosis quickly put those plans on hold. “When you’re adopting a child, it has to be about the child. And, right now, it’s everything about Martina, and for her getting healthy.
So, we’re putting it on hold,” she said on the show. In 2023, Navratilova was declared cancer free. Here’s everything we know about Julia Lemigova, the former model who has stood by her wife through a cancer battle and is welcoming two new kids into the family.
Julia Lemigova is a former model {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Julia Lemigova was crowned Miss USSR in 1990; she was initially first runner-up, but the original winner was disqualified. Photo: @julialemigova/Instagram","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/19/c2621c92-a80a-4eac-8953-8262fd0f887f_7390c88c.jpg"} Julia Lemigova was crowned Miss USSR in 1990; she was initially first runner-up, but the original winner was disqualified.
Photo: @julialemigova/Instagram Before Lemigova was known for appearing on Real Housewives of Miami with Navratilova as the first same-sex couple on the show, she was a model and beauty pageant title-holder. The Russian beauty was crowned Miss USSR 1990. How did Julia Lemigova meet her wife, Martina Navratilova? {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova originally met in 2000. Photo: @julialemigova/Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/19/e11b9a73-8fec-46ce-984a-5e60af617228_a26c17fe.jpg"} Martina Navratilova and Julia Lemigova originally met in 2000. Photo: @julialemigova/Instagram Lemigova, 52, told British media in 2015 that she’d met her then future wife, Navratilova, 67, in 2000, but they lost contact for several years before crossing paths again in 2008.
“I was modelling, living in Paris [when we first met] and meeting all these amazing people – famous people, royals,” she said. “I’m not a tennis fan but, of course, I knew who she was and we just got chatting,” she said. In 2014, after several years of dating, Navratilova popped the question to Lemigova on the big screen during the Men’s US Open semi-finals at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
She loves animals A casual scroll through Lemigova’s Instagram page will tell you that the model is a huge lover of animals. From adorable puppies to goats and even pigs, there seems to be no animal that the former beauty queen doesn’t adore. She even has her own working farm with cows and donkeys.
Julia Lemigova has a son who passed away {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Julia Lemigova with her daughters, Victoria and Emma. Photo: @julialemigova/Instagram","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/19/4f3aead9-a280-4324-9772-12f34c67cccd_4b5e0472.jpg"} Julia Lemigova with her daughters, Victoria and Emma.
Photo: @julialemigova/Instagram In addition to their two recently adopted sons, Lemigova also has two daughters, Victoria and Emma, from previous relationships – and a son who died tragically several years ago. Lemigova and her ex, French banker Édouard Stern who passed away in 2005, welcomed their first child, a son called Maximilien Stern, in October 1999. The baby boy was only five months old when he died in 2000 at Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris from shaken infant syndrome, while being cared for by a Bulgarian nanny hired by Édouard.
“I don’t know if I ever completely survived the loss of my son,” Lemigova had told US media. According to British media, a concealed autopsy report found evidence of diazepam – a sedative used to treat anxiety, muscular spasms and seizures – in the child’s bloodstream. The nanny vanished before charges could be filed against her.
Julia Lemigova was a former USSR beauty queen and met the ex-tennis world No 1 Navratilova in 2000, but they did not start dating until years later; the couple got engaged in 2014 Lemigova also has 2 daughters with other ex-partners, and a son – who tragically died – with French banker Édouard Stern; Stern himself died in 2005.
