Mental As Anyone: Jelena Dokic opens up on having children

Jelena Dokic is looking to explore motherhood as a single parent.The 42-year-old opened up about her plans on the most recent episode of Mental As Anyone.

Jelena Dokic is looking to explore motherhood as a single parent. Picture: David Caird

Jelena Dokic is looking to explore motherhood as a single parent.

At 42, the Australian tennis legend is looking at adoption.

“I actually think I would be a good mum to be honest, I love kids,” Dokic said on the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.

“I don’t think that that’s going to happen for me.

“I was in a relationship for almost 19 years from the age of 20 and right when we split up, we were about to start trying for a family.”

Dokic and ex partner Tin Bukic separated in 2021 but the pair remain close friends.

“He is amazing, he was right there for me through everything, just the best person,” she said.

Dokic is of course one of Australia’s most famous tennis players.

Her story of abuse – physically and emotionally – by her father, Damir, dominated her professional tennis career.

She can say with “100 per cent certainty” she would not be like her father.

“Even 15 years ago, when I was 25, I always said, I want to have kids, but I want adopt,” she said.

“Maybe it comes from when you grow up maybe in a home that’s fractured and with pain and you go, maybe I can give something different to a kid that I know maybe will have the same, or they won’t have parents or something like that.

Jelena Dokic is looking to explore motherhood as a single parent. Picture: David Caird

“So I always felt like I wanted to do that for at least one kid in the world. That’s a big kind of wish of mine and passion and I hope to do it one day.

“Did I at one stage maybe think, I didn’t have the best experience and know a lot of people with parents and having that childhood and what would that mean for me? Because I know a lot people that have been through family violence or abuse, domestic violence, however you want to frame it, they are worried about that, whether they would be the same or if there’s something there.”

Dokic rose to international stardom on the tennis circuit as a teenager, reaching number four in the world at her peak, and representing Australia at the Olympics.

Jelena Dokic during her professional tennis days. Picture: Paul Hutton. Tennis A/CT

Jelena Dokic in action during his pro tennis days. Picture: Paul/Hutton

The author and commentator was born in the former Yugoslavia to a Serbian father and Croatian mother, Ljiljana, and has a younger brother eight years her junior.

She was the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary feature film, Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, that won a prestigious award at the Screen Producers Awards last week. It was co-directed and co-written by The Australian’s chief sports writer Jessica Halloran and In Films Ivan O’Mahoney with the documentary still able be watched on 9now.com.au.

Dokic said she simply “had no choice” earlier in adulthood as she struggled for years to process her own abandonment issues.

Jelena Dokic is looking to explore motherhood as a single parent. Picture: David Caird

While single and looking at solo parenting, she would “love it to have a father as well”.

“I know that I can give it absolutely everything and would have all the love and support and I would be completely different and … I could never be that (like my father) ever,” she said.

“I know that yes, obviously, it’s a challenge, which I would love, I would embrace and take it on. I just love kids so much. I know I would be a bloody good mum and I know I would give it the love in the world of a million people. I have so much love to give.”

* A new episode of Mental As Anyone is released each Tuesday.

Originally published as Mental As Anyone: Jelena Dokic opens up on having children