The Duchess of Kent had a huge impact on Martina Navratilova (Image: Getty)
The impact on tennis legend Martina Navratilova by the late Duchess of Kent is one that will likely never be forgotten. Buckingham Palace has announced that Katharine, Duchess of Kent, has died at 92.
A formal announcement has also been made on the Royal Family’s official website, and flags on public buildings have been lowered to half-mast. It’s the Duchess’ pivotal role in helping to reunite nine-time Wimbledon champion Navratilova with her family, following a highly emotional exchange at the tournament, that will help cement the late Royal’s extraordinary legacy. Navratilova, now 68, won her first Wimbledon title in 1978 at the age of 21. Yet, her family couldn’t travel to the All England Club to see her victory due to her defection from Czechoslovakia to the US three years earlier. The tennis star’s choice to defect was spurred on by the communist regime’s restrictions on her career, but she hadn’t told her family before openly declaring her defection at the 1975 US Open.
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Navratilova explained at a press conference: “They wanted me to stay home more and associate more with Czech officials. I felt if I didn’t get out, I could not become the best player in the world. I had to ask if I could play in this tournament and that tournament. It was very frustrating. Politics had nothing to do with my decision. It was strictly a tennis matter.”
Fellow tennis icon and ex-BBC presenter Sue Barker explained in her memoir ‘Wimbledon: A personal history’ how the Duchess of Kent’s interaction with Navratilova during Wimbledon ended up facilitating a heartfelt reunion where, following the Royal Family’s involvement, Navratilova’s mother received permission to attend Wimbledon the following year.
“Martina was so close to her mother, Jana, but she had to leave without saying goodbye to her and without knowing when she would ever see her again. I just can’t imagine that,” Barker wrote in her book.
“When she was presented with the trophy in 1978 by the Duchess of Kent, Martina told her a little about the political situation and why she could not share the dream she had long nurtured with her family, and the Duchess promised to try to help.
Navratilova spoke to the Duchess of Kent after winning Wimbledon in 1978 (Image: Getty)
“The following year the Duchess of Kent intervened on her behalf and implored the Czech government to grant Martina’s mother a visa so that she could watch her play. Jana was permitted a two-week visit. It was the first time mother and daughter had seen each other for four years. Imagine how overwhelming that must have been for Martina.”
The Duchess served as All England Club president until 2001. In a 2017 BBC documentary, Our Wimbledon, Navratilova revealed to Barker how the Duchess assisted her family after their conversation at the iconic tournament.
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“The Duchess helped get [my mother’s] visa,” she told Barker, as per the Daily Mail. Detailing leaving her family as “the hardest thing I ever had to deal with,” she added: “After that, playing a match, coming out, a piece of cake. I didn’t know if I was going to see my parents again. I didn’t know if I was going to see them alive.
Navratilova told how the Duchess played a huge role in seeing her mother again (Image: Getty)
“When I won my first Wimbledon I was stateless. I didn’t even know if [my family] were able to watch as Czech TV didn’t show it. They’d show Wimbledon until I started winning and then they wouldn’t show it. That’s how people knew I was in the finals – they didn’t show it.”
Yet Navratilova’s family did have a chance to see her victorious moment from Pilsen, which is close to the German border, where the match was shown on television. And the year after saw their reunion at Wimbledon.
“My mum came in ’79. The Duchess of Kent actually intervened because she read the story how in ’78 when I won I couldn’t be with my family,” Navratilova said on Desert Island Discs in 2012.
The Duchess, pictured with Steffi Graf at Wimbledon, was a huge tennis fan (Image: Getty)
“So she apparently implored the Czech government to let my parents out and they made a concession and they let my mother out for Wimbledon.”
In 1980, after five years spent apart, Navratilova experienced a tearful reunion with her mother, stepfather and younger sister in the US, as they were handed one-year visas.
Discussing the moment to the Washington Post, she said: “I guess it was just like any scene where people meet their long-lost relatives at the airport. Lots of hugs and kisses and crying. But it was very special for me, of course.”
Details of The Duchess of Kent’s funeral will be announced in the coming days. She is survived by her husband, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and their three children.