This year, Maria Sharapova is celebrating both her birthday and her impending motherhood.
The four-time Grand Slam winner commemorated her 35th birthday on Tuesday with an Instagram post showing off her growing belly, announcing that she is expecting her first child with fiancé Alexander Gilkes. Alongside the picture of her posing in a bikini top and leggings on the beech, Sharapova wrote, “Precious beginnings!!! Eating birthday cake for two has always been my specialty.” Her future husband also commented on the post with a heart-eye emoji, but has yet to share the big news on his own account.
The tennis star and Gilkes have been dating since 2018 and in December 2020 she announced her engagement to the British businessman and college friend of Prince William shortly after revealing that she was retiring from the sport. At the time, Sharapova shared a black and white photo of herself and Gilkes embracing as well as some sweet videos of the two of them together on her Instagram, writing, “I said yes from the first day we met. This was our little secret, wasn’t it @gilkesa.”
Gilkes also shared the engagement announcement on his own Instagram account, posting a black-and-white photo of his bride-to-be kissing him on the forehead and one of her standing in front of a work of art that says “FUTURE.” He wrote in the caption, “Thank you for making me a very very happy boy and saying yes. I look forward to a lifetime of loving you, and learning from you @mariasharapova.”
This will be Gilkes second marriage as he was previously married to fashion designer and friend of Meghan Markle, Misha Nonoo, from 2012 to 2016. Sharapova was also previously engaged to Sasha Bujačić, a former professional basketball player, in 2011, but they called it off the following year. She then dated Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov before meeting her future husband and father of her child.
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