JELENA DOKIC 'I'M READY TO ADOPT'

After a traumatic childhood, the tennis star can't wait to start her own family

- Phillip Koch

With the revelations that she suffered years of terrible abuse at the hands of her father Damir Dokic out in the open after the release of her first explosive memoir, Jelena Dokic finally felt healed enough to plan her own beautiful future.

She had rebuilt the $10 million fortune she claims her father took from her, thanks to a new tennis career coaching and commentating, and was in a happy long-term relationship with the man she credits with saving her life.

That all came crashing down two days before Christmas 2021, when her partner of 19 years, Tin Bikic, told her over the phone, "Yes, we are done," after they spent five months apart when he went home to Serbia and never returned to Australia.

"It's been two years now and I struggled with that at the beginning, it was a shock, there's no doubt about that," Jelena, 40, tells Woman's Day on the eve of the release of her new memoir, Fearless: Finding The Power To Thrive, which she wrote with journalist Jessica Halloran.

"I'm in a great place now and again I think, like a lot of my experiences in my life, getting help has really helped with that. It's the first time ever I've had to deal with that situation. It will stay with me forever, it's such a big part of my life.

"I think the world of him. I'm still figuring out what my future looks like. I love living alone. I've never lived alone and it was an adjustment but I now love it and I have so many great things to focus on. We will see what happens in the future.

'I HAVE SURVIVED IT ALL'

Jelena has become a champion for body positivity to millions of women around the world, and one recent Instagram post that showed her smaller but unhappy due to the abuse she was experiencing, compared to a happy one of her today, generated 175,000 likes.