Elina Svitolina announced on Monday that she and her husband, Gaël Monfils, are divorcing after five years of marriage.
The couple posted a joint statement to both of their Instagram accounts. In it, Svitolina discusses the Russia-Ukraine war and how the emotional impact of it as a Ukrainian has caused her to lose herself in her marriage.
Svitolina briefly stepped away from tennis in 2025. In her Monday statement, she discussed the behind-the-scenes mental impact the war has had on her, including “sleepless nights, the doubts and the feeling of slowly losing myself.”
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Over the years, she has spoken repeatedly about how much she feared for her friends and family back in Ukraine while competing internationally in tennis. Svitolina has a foundation that has reportedly raised more than $1 million for people affected by the war.
In May, she spoke about what it was like being Ukrainian after Marta Kostyuk said that a missile had struck close to her family’s home in Kyiv.
“Of course, it’s very difficult. It was a massive attack that night and I have so many friends also talking about it, and it was very scary and I cannot even imagine her waking up and being so worried and scared.
Just too much, and she needs to go play a match. So, of course, it’s very heavy, very difficult, and I think she handled it the best way she could. We are kind of used to it, in a way, but of course in Marta’s case, when the missile is landing really close to your home, to your parents, it is just terrifying.
You start to think about your life and what are you doing here, in a way, because you could potentially lose your family. We have been dealing with that, maybe not always talking about this, but it’s extremely tough, and I think it’s weighing on us for years and years now.”
Svitolina was away from tennis for about four months at the end of last year and returned in January 2026. She has competed throughout this year and recently qualified for this year’s WTA Tour Finals.
She is one of several Ukrainian tennis players who have continued to refuse post-match handshakes with opponents from Russia or Belarus.
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Svitolina thanked Monfils for his unwavering support of her, through her “greatest joys and darkest moments.” She said she needs to “find my way back to myself” and admitted the tough truth: “I cannot do that within our marriage.”
She and Monfils were married in 2021 and had their daughter, Skai, in 2022. Svitolina mentioned in her statement that their daughter will always come first, and that she and Monfils may be ending their marriage, but not “our family”
Source: sports.yahoo.com
