Kriti Mehrotra
While Martina Navrátilova (née Šubertová) is one of the most successful athletes to have ever graced the tennis court, she did so in spite of more than her fair share of personal ups and downs. Some of these have since been touched upon in Netflix’s ‘Chris & Martina: The Final Set,’ but what many don’t know is that her familial connections weren’t always tight-knit either. That’s because while she had their unwavering support as an ambitious tennis player, the truth about some internal things was allegedly long hidden from her – omitted on purpose.
Martina Navratilova’s Parents Paved the Way For Her Success
Martina Šubertová was born on October 18, 1956, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Jana Šubertová and Mirek Šubert (or Miroslav Šubert). However, she never really got to know her biological father, as they divorced when she was merely 3 years old. Shortly after, her mother fell in love again and then tied the knot with Miroslav Navrátil in 1962. The latter embraced Martina as his own and went on to become her first-ever coach, driving her to take his last name and add the feminine suffix -ová to proudly be Martina Navrátilová. According to records, Martina’s mother was an accomplished gymnast, tennis player, and ski instructor, whereas her stepfather was a professional tennis coach with an impressive resume.
Even her biological father was a hard-working ski instructor, so it comes as no surprise that her sports-oriented environment led her to pick up a racket at just 4 years old. However, it wasn’t until she was 7 that she began playing regularly with structured lessons from none other than her strict yet supportive stepfather, who instilled in her fierce competitiveness. Martina’s loved ones did everything in their power to help her achieve her dreams, which continued even after she defected at age 18 and was not allowed to return to her homeland. They met up with her in other countries, spoke to her on the phone at least once a week, and traveled to see her play whenever possible, despite her stepfather being against her sexuality as a lesbian.
They stood by Martina at every turn, that is, until they couldn’t anymore – her loving mother passed away at age 75 in 2008, whereas her stepfather has likely also since passed on. As for Martina’s biological father, he died when she was just 8 years old, and she believed for over 12 years that his cause of death was complications from a stomach ailment/operation. Yet, the truth is, he died by suicide after the woman he was seeing, following his second divorce, told him she was in love with someone else while he was hospitalized for his stomach ailment. In other words, she was around 20 years old and already thriving in the US as an athlete when she learned how her father really died in the hospital all the way back in the mid-1960s.
Jana Navrátilova Followed in Her Sister’s Footsteps and Has Since Retreated From the Limelight
It was not long after Jana Šubertová and Miroslav Navrátil got married that they welcomed a little girl of their own into this world, making Jana Navrátilova 6 years younger than Martina. The young girl admittedly idolized her sister throughout her childhood, which is just one of the many reasons she began playing tennis under the watchful eye of their father and professional coach. But alas, her entire world turned upside down at the tender age of 12 when she realized precisely what it means for someone to “defect” and why they do so, because Martina had done it.
As a result of the defection, Jana believes she and Martina missed out on some key sisterly years between them, but she also understands why it had to happen. More importantly, she is glad that despite everything, they were able to remain in contact, meet at least once a year, and have fun together, enabling them to build a strong relationship over the years. It all ultimately helped her in making the decision to follow in her sister’s footsteps to not only turn professional as a tennis player but also defect to West Germany at age 23 in 1986 with her then-fiancé. She reportedly hoped to obtain German citizenship and represent the nation in the sport for a few years before eventually emigrating to the US to be closer to Martina.
From what we can tell, Jana’s career as an athlete never really took off, but she was able to come into the US and settle down near her closest confidant/elder sister. Since then, it appears as if she has chosen to lead a private life well away from the spotlight for privacy reasons, especially as she is now seemingly a proud family woman. We should also mention that Martina has a half-brother from one of her biological father’s relationships before his first marriage to her mother, but she didn’t even know about him until she was 23. In fact, they have reportedly never met, so there is truly no information available on him as of writing – not even his name, his mother’s name, his age, or his occupation is publicly known.
Read More: Where is Chris Evert’s Family Now?
