Tennis legend Jelena Dokic shares shock baby news: ‘I would be a bloody good mum’

Jelena Dokic has opened up about her desire to one day have children and admitted she is considering adoption.

The Australian tennis legend, 42, has revealed she has a profound love for children and an unwavering commitment to providing a nurturing home.

‘I actually think I would be a good mum to be honest, I love kids,’ she told the Mental As Anyone podcast.

She reflected on her lifelong dream of motherhood and how she is still optimistic about it despite significant hardship along the way.

‘I don’t think that that’s going to happen for me. I was in a relationship for almost 19 years from the age of 20. When we split up, we were about to start trying for a family,’ she said. 

Jelena announced her split from Tin Bikic in January last year and has remained single ever since. 

Jelena Dokic has opened up about her desire to one day have children and admitted she is considering adoption 

The retired athlete said she is confident she would be a great parent despite her difficult childhood with an abusive father.

‘Even 15 years ago, when I was 25, I always said, I want to have kids, but I want adopt,’ she admitted.

‘Maybe it comes from when you grow up in a home that’s fractured and with pain. You go, “Maybe I can give something different to a kid.”

‘I always wanted to do that for at least one kid in the world. That’s a big wish of mine and I hope to do it one day.

‘I know I can give it absolutely everything and would have all the love and support and I would be completely different. I just love kids so much. I know I would be a bloody good mum and I know I would give it the love of a million people.’ 

She also made a heartbreaking admission about the years of abuse she suffered at the hands of her estranged father, Damir.

The former tennis star admitted while she is unable to forgive her father, who she has not spoken to for over a decade, she still cannot bring herself to hate him.

‘People say you have to forgive, not for your abuser or someone that caused you pain, but for yourself,’ she said.

The Australian tennis legend has revealed she has a profound love for children and an unwavering commitment to providing a nurturing home

She reflected on her lifelong dream of motherhood and how she is still optimistic about it despite significant hardship along the way

‘But I’m not sure I agree with that because I don’t necessarily have to forgive him to be able to move on.

‘You have to accept the circumstances. Accepting that that was my life, the cards I’d been dealt, that’s fine but I don’t hate him. But I don’t forgive him.’

Jelena, who has since reinvented herself as a commentator and sports analyst, added that despite her ordeal and its ensuing aftermath, she does not want to be viewed as a victim.

‘I want people to look at me not as a victim, I’m a survivor, but most importantly, thriver, a success story,’ she said.

‘I want people to go, ‘you know, she did it, I can do it too’.’

Jelena’s revelation comes after she said she would suffer through ‘100 years of abuse’ from her father if it meant she could undo her decision to turn her back on playing for Australia.

She detailed the harrowing physical and mental abuse she suffered at the hands of her father in her 2017 autobiography Unbreakable.

The book was subsequently adapted into a documentary, Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, which was released in cinemas in 2024.

The documentary also aired on Channel Nine in January 2025.

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