In celebration of her 35th birthday, former tennis player Maria Sharapova made an exciting announcement. She is expecting her first child! “Precious beginnings!!!” she wrote in her post, “Eating birthday cake for two has always been my specialty.”
The five-time Grand Slam champion, who retired from tennis in 2020, is expecting her child with her partner Alexander Gilkes, a businessman. Maria and Alexander announced in December of 2020 that they were engaged. “I said yes from the first day we met,” Maria wrote on Instagram at the time. “This was our little secret, wasn’t it.” Alexander gushed about his fiancée in his announcement post as well writing, “Thank you for making me a very very happy boy. I look forward to a lifetime of loving you, and learning from you.”
The couple, who began dating in 2018, has not yet set a date for their wedding. Maria spoke about their hesitation to set a date sharing, “I think with the air of this period it is difficult to make plans [for the wedding]. There are too many uncertainties and we have not yet decided on an official date. We haven’t talked about it yet because we want to put our relatives and friends at ease, with the right climate and not by pressing them to participate in something by force of circumstances.”
Congratulations to Maria and Alexander on the news of their baby! We wish them all the best as they prepare to grow their family.
Kate Fann (she/her) is the BabyNames.com celebrity blogger, as well as an established content writer, aspiring author, and social media expert. She has been featured in online publications such as Bolde, ManoByte, Medium, The Social Observer, and more. Kate has ghostwritten numerous romance novels and is currently working on publishing her own works in the Young Adult genre.
Kate lives in East Tennessee with her husband Casey and her two sons, Quinn and Noah. When she's not writing or scrolling Instagram, Kate can be found tasting delicious wines, playing with make-up, baking yummy treats, or hiking the beautiful Smoky Mountains.
