Chris Evert: Menopause made me stray
HER colourful love life has earned her a reputation as a man-eater.
Now former tennis champion Chris Evert has blamed the menopause for the affair which ended her 18-year marriage to American Olympic skier Andy Mill.
The 61-year-old, who was engaged to tennis champion Jimmy Connors as a teenager, said ‘menopausal stuff’ had led her to leave Mill for his friend, Australian golfer Greg Norman.
‘We had a rough couple of years’, the former world number one admitted on Lance Armstrong’s podcast, The Forward.
‘I don’t know, I was going through menopausal stuff that doesn’t get talked about enough – what women go through, you know, at 50ish. You know, Andy and I are still a family without living together. I think that’s the best way to put it.’
Miss Evert, who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles including Wimbledon three times during the 1970s and 1980s, married Mill in 1988 and had three sons with him. But in 2006 she filed for divorce, having started what she insists was a platonic affair with Norman, who was also married. The American star married Norman, 61, in 2008 but the pair split after 15 months. Speaking about the affair in 2011, she said: ‘I was with Andy for 18 years. It was a good, solid marriage.
‘When we were growing apart, I should have nailed it right then and there, and communicated, but I didn’t. And when someone came into my life, I just left.
‘I broke a lot of hearts. I broke Andy’s heart and broke my kids’ hearts. And I brought that into my next marriage, those issues that weren’t resolved.’
Miss Evert and Connors were engaged in 1974, shortly after they both won Wimbledon, but the wedding was called off.
In 1979, Miss Evert married British tennis player John Lloyd and changed her name to Chris Evert-Lloyd. They divorced in 1987, after Miss Evert had an affair with British singer and actor Adam Faith.
Describing her relationship with Mill now, Miss Evert added: ‘He’s a great guy. He’s been a great father to my boys because... he’s taken them fishing and hunting and motorcycling and golf and tennis, introduced them to so much.’