Former Wimbledon star Slobodan Živojinović once claimed that he dated the late Diana, Princess of Wales, while she was still married to the then Prince Charles. The 61-year-old told the story in an interview with a Serbian newspaper about his alleged relationship with the late royal, who died at the age of 36 in 1997.
Speaking to Kurir, he revealed that their closeness developed while they were both in other relationships. Discussing their first meeting in 1987 ahead of his Wimbledon match, he recalled: “In our first conversation she asked me if I am the tennis player with the fastest serve, and I said ‘yes’.”
He added: “Then she asked if my serve was still good. Shortly after that we started seeing each other.”
Slobodan, who was also engaged at the time, shared that Diana was still married to Charles.
Speaking of Diana, he added: “She was a wonderful woman. With her I could talk about everything and even simple things became fascinating. I don’t want to speak about it in any detail now that she is no longer with us.”
“What I can say is that it is great when someone like her comes to watch the match and supports you. Never happened to me before that someone from the Royal Family came to support me.”
Speaking about his son, revealed his reaction when telling him that Diana was a princess.
He said: “When I told him that she is a princess he was surprised, because every child has its own image on what the look of a princess should be. He was confused. However, she was really great with kids and understood him.”
The sporting star represented Serbia at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea but where he was defeated in the second round by Guy Forget from France.
Živojinović retired from tennis in 1992 and later served as President of the Tennis Federation of Serbia from 2006 to 2011.
