At 82, tennis legend Billie Jean King begins every day by mentally assembling a gratitude list. She notes the people who have shaped her path, a list that today features her wife, fellow former professional player Ilana Kloss, her nephew, and her childhood friend Susan Williams. King recalls meeting Williams in their fifth-grade class in Long Beach, California, when she was 11. It was Williams who introduced her to the sport that would define her life, asking, “Do you want to play tennis?” When King asked what tennis was, Williams replied, “You get to run, jump and hit a ball.” King, already an avid athlete encouraged by parents who supported her ambitions alongside those of her baseball-pitching brother, was instantly hooked. And her parents, unusually for the time, encouraged her athletic ambitions just as much as they did her brother’s (he later became a major league baseball pitcher), she had always been a sporty child. Three of my favourite things.’”, and I went: ‘Oh. As soon as she tried it, King was hooked, and it wasn’t long before she was telling her parents she was going to be the No 1 player in the world, which indeed she became. We speak via video call – King, 82, is at home in New York, while I’m in London – and she bursts on screen in a hot pink jacket and matching pink glasses, and immediately begins talking energetically. She tells me my name, Lucy, is a favourite of hers and Kloss’s. “We named our dog that,” she adds, which I think she means as a compliment. With dark brown hair immaculately coiffed, pearls around her neck and in her ears, she cuts a stately figure. She is serious and authoritative, on topics such as the state of the US (we are speaking on the day of the midterm elections) and the importance of access to sport. Born Billie Jean Moffitt to a firefighter father and a housewife mother, King was “the goody-two-shoes of the family,” she says, an identity she has carried into adult life: she hates lying, doesn’t drink, and when the first women’s tennis tour was sponsored by cigarette brand Virginia Slims, she never once had a puff. Although she is “still spiritual” and continues to pray, King dislikes organised religion, because in many cases she thinks women are still treated “as second-class citizens”. Where her pastor was the two-time Olympic pole-vaulting champion Bob Richards, but she attended church with her family as a child. According to she, She learned a lot from Richards, and it was easy to believe when she was young that there was a God looking out for her. “Look at all the unbelievable things that happened to me,” she says, pointing to the offer to play tennis from Williams, and the fact that she was able to access free tennis instruction from the professional player Clyde Walker at her city’s public courts. At times, King makes for a difficult interviewee – not because of any lack of openness, quite the opposite, but because she is so reluctant to have a one-way conversation, and keeps batting questions back at me after she has answered them. “We’re talking about you. “My friends just look at me like: ‘All right, stop.
King quickly declared to her parents that she would become the world’s number one tennis player, a goal she achieved through sheer determination. Over a glittering career, she secured 39 grand slam titles, including 12 in singles, 16 in doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. Her dominance was particularly felt at Wimbledon, where she claimed 20 titles across all disciplines, a record shared with Martina Navratilova. Beyond her on-court success, King was instrumental in advancing gender equality in sports, notably leading the “Original 9” who broke away in 1970 to establish the first professional women’s tour, famously signing symbolic one-dollar contracts to protest the prize money disparity.
The life of the tennis pioneer is currently the subject of a new documentary, “Give Me the Ball!”, which revisits her historic 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” exhibition match against Bobby Riggs. King acknowledges that while it was a defining moment for women’s tennis, she felt emotionally overwhelmed at the time. Speaking from her home in New York, she remains energetic and candid, often shifting the focus of interviews back to those she is speaking with. Her insatiable curiosity recently led her to complete a history degree, finishing studies she had first abandoned in 1964. Graduating earlier this year – just one example of King’s refusal to stop pushing herself, her appetite for broadening her knowledge is so great that last year she returned to the history degree she dropped out of in 1964.
King admits that her journey toward personal truth was complex. She describes her parents as loving but deeply homophobic, which complicated her self-discovery. Her marriage to Larry King, while containing many happy years, also obscured her understanding of her own sexuality for some time. However, she notes that once she entered a relationship with Ilana Kloss over four decades ago, she recognized Kloss as her lifelong partner. King eventually confronted the necessity of being true to herself, despite the professional and personal risks of coming out in an era that demanded silence from gay athletes. And her marriage to the lawyer and sports promoter Larry King was becoming increasingly strained, her internal struggle with her sexuality (she now identifies as a lesbian) was coming to a head. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the way she has thrown herself into all kinds of projects over the years: from a cameo role in the cult lesbian TV show The L Word to her more recent appearance on the US edition of The Masked Singer, in which she performed Philadelphia Freedom, the song her friend Elton John wrote about her, dressed as a giant hen, but she is also enormous fun.
Reflecting on her professional legacy, King recalls the 1988 tennis clinic where she coached a young Serena and Venus Williams. Even as a six-year-old, Serena displayed a remarkably beautiful serve, and King vividly remembers advising her never to let anyone alter her technique. This mentorship remains a point of pride, as does her ongoing commitment to social progress. Despite her achievements, she carries one regret: she and Kloss were unable to have children, as it was considered too difficult for same-sex couples in the 1980s. Nevertheless, she finds fulfillment through her many nieces, nephews, and the work of her various non-profit organizations. After she retired from professional singles tennis in 1983, King repaid that good fortune, famously instructing the then-children, Serena and Venus Williams, at a tennis clinic they attended in 1988.
King has also been open about her struggles with binge-eating, which she links to the internal turmoil surrounding her hidden sexuality.
In recent years, she has utilized GLP-1 medication to manage intrusive thoughts regarding food, a step she feels is acceptable given her focus on personal well-being. She has started using small doses of a GLP-1 weight loss medication to help quiet the intrusive thoughts she experiences around eating. “I think it’s OK to worry about your health and your body,” King sa, in recent years.
She advises young people to identify what they truly enjoy and to pursue it consistently throughout their lives.
As she enters her ninth decade, King maintains that “goody-two-shoes” identity she adopted in youth, valuing honesty, abstinence from alcohol, and a relentless dedication to learning.
Her impact on the sport and the fight for equity remains unmatched, and she continues to hold those who helped her along the way accountable for the significant roles they played in her journey.
