Living without fear

THE FORMER TENNIS STAR TELLS HOW SHE'S FOUND HER PURPOSE AND WILL ONE DAY FIND LOVE AGAIN

- Naomi Toy

The best day of Jelena Dokic's life came when her first book Unbreakable was published in 2017. "It changed my life," she explains to WHO. "My healing started and me living - not just existing started with Unbreakable. There was no more secrecy, there was no more hiding, all of it was out in the world. All this weight was lifted off my shoulders and that's the power of sharing our stories."

The stories that Dokic, the former world No. 4 tennis star, told in that memoir were horrifying. She revealed years and years of ongoing physical and mental abuse at the hands of her father, Damir. He beat her until she lost consciousness, kicked her, starved her and ultimately left her battling depression and suicidal thoughts.

But there was more to tell. Teaming up again with journalist Jessica Halloran, Dokic has written Fearless: Finding the Power to Thrive. In it she details, for the first time, her disordered eating, which she traces back to trauma from her childhood as a Serbian refugee and her father's weaponisation of food, which could see her go from eating 10 meals a day to starving herself for almost a week. And she reveals the heartbreak she endured when she split with her partner of almost 20 years, Tin Bikic, which intensified her binge eating and left her suicidal.

Dokic, 40, sought professional help and again found strength and power in sharing her story. In doing so, she believes she has discovered her purpose.

"I felt like there was a lot of things still to talk about and a lot of things that I was learning and I was still growing as a person," she says of writing her second book. "I know that this can have a positive impact on people.