Maria Sharapova said: "Yes!" The famous tennis player is about to marry a British millionaire Alexander Gilkes
Maria Sharapova announced her engagement.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova announced on her Instagram page that she agreed to marry her boyfriend, British millionaire Alexander Gilkуs. By the way, this is not the first time Maria said yes, and Gilkes was married at all.
"I said 'Yes' from the first day we met ... It was our little secret, wasn't it?" - Sharapova wrote on her Instagram, making it clear to all her followers that she accepted the proposal of her boyfriend Alex Gilkes.
In turn, Gilkes also posted on Instagram a joint photo with Maria with the caption: “Thank you for making me very, very happy. I look forward to loving you and learning from you all my life. "
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Elena Vesnina, Monica Puig, WTA official account, numerous sponsors, celebrities and ordinary fans congratulated Maria in a comment under her post on Instagram. In the first two hours alone, Sharapova's engagement message got more than 150 thousand likes.
The chosen one of the multiple champion of the Grand Slam tournaments is 41 years old Alex Gilkes. He is 8 years older than Maria. It is not known exactly when Sharapova and Gilkes met, but since 2018, paparazzi and fans began to notice them together. Periodically, on their "Instagram" Maria and Alexander began to post photos from the same places and social events. In July 2018, young people vacationed together in Italy, in April 2019 they appeared together in public in Los Angeles, where they posed not separately, but together, cheek to cheek.
Maria Sharapova and Alexander Gilkes Photo: Amy Sussman / Getty Images
Since then, the couple has practically never parted. Gilkes even attended some of the tennis tournaments Maria played in. Together, young people attended various social events.
What is known about the groom Maria Sharapova? Alexander Gilkes was born into a wealthy but poor British family. His father is a doctor of medical sciences, one of the leading dermatologists in Great Britain, but his mother taught at Oxford University, being a specialist in Russia and Eastern Europe. Alexander has a younger brother, Charlie, who is 6 years younger than him. It is known that Alex studied at the University of Bristol, where he studied Russian and Spanish, later he entered Eton, where he met and even made friends with Princes William and Harry.
After his studies, Gilkes worked for some time in France at the well-known firm Louis Vuitton, and then moved to New York, where he became a shareholder in one of the auction houses. From 2011 to 2018, Alexander was co-founder and president of Paddle8, an online auction for art and collectibles. According to some reports, Paddle8's estimated annual income in its best years was about a billion dollars. Since 2020, Gilkes has co-founded the venture capital studio Squared Circles.
It is curious that, according to Gilkes, the main investors in all his projects related to art have always been Russian billionaires, whom he met in large numbers over the years: “My main investors are Russians. It's nice to know that there is a country where people are so interested in painting. I have a special relationship with Russia: my mother taught Russian at the university, so I have read Russian literature since childhood. To understand it better, I started learning the language. " It is interesting that Alexander said all this before he met Sharapova.
By the way, Gilkes was already married. In May 2012, the wedding of Alex and the charming Edwina Eklestwight, known under the pseudonym Misha Nonoo, took place in Venice. She started dating Gilkes when she was barely 18 years old. It took Alexander ten years to persuade his girlfriend to go down the aisle with him. However, in September 2016, the couple announced their divorce.
Sharapova is also not engaged for the first time. In October 2010, it became known that the basketball player of the NBA Los Angeles Lakers team Sasha Vuyachich proposed to her. However, the couple was in no hurry with the wedding. Relations between young people soured when Sasha left to play in Turkey. In 2012, after Maria's victory at Roland Garros, Sharapova and Vuyachich broke up.