Jelena Djokovic39, prefers to stay away from the spotlight, but his social networks (where he has more than 800,000 followers) show the extent to which he is a key presence in Novak’s life. Between family images, books and personal messages, it reveals a relationship that was born long before fame and that continues to be his greatest support on and off the track.
Born and raised in Belgrade, He left Serbia at 18 to study abroad. He first settled in Italy and later spent a period in Monaco, while his story with Novak grew through airports, late calls and recounted meetings. They met as teenagers, at a sports-oriented school. She was a year older than him and, as he has said in several interviews, theirs was a crush that had to learn to survive from a distance. «Getting together was almost science fiction. I was a student and he was a young player with no money to travel. “Flying was out of our reach,” he recalled in an interview with Serbian television.
That stage forever set the tone of their relationship: patience, adaptation and a very clear idea of always going as a team. After graduating from Bocconi University in Milan, he worked in an oil company, but he soon understood that the office routine clashed with Novak’s nomadic life, who already spent half a year jumping from tournament to tournament. “Honey, we can’t go on like this,” he told her in a conversation that she herself has recounted. Shortly after, she left her job and dedicated herself to a project that is now a central part of her life: the Novak Djokovic Foundation, of which she is co-founder and global director, dedicated to improving access to early childhood education in Serbia.
Jelena often says she lives by values like gratitude, honesty, respect, kindness and forgiveness, and those who know her say those aren’t just words. In her daily life she is a voracious reader – “I don’t read books, I devour them,” she has joked on occasion – and a great admirer of JK Rowling and the Harry Potter universe, which frequently appears among her recommendations. She has also shown interest in natural medicine and meditation, a facet that gained prominence in 2016, when she began collaborating with the Spaniard Pepe Imaz, extensionist and advocate of spiritual development, who helped Novak manage frustration and anger after defeats. That stage was so intense that its influence was even pointed out as one of the factors that precipitated the departure of Boris Becker from the Serbian technical team.
Djokovic, his wife Jelena and their two children, on their children’s account
The couple married in 2014, a few days after the tennis player won Wimbledon. They chose a postcard enclave in Montenegro, with a celebration that lasted two days and brought together family, friends and figures from the world of tennis. Just a month later, their first son, Stefan, was born, and in 2017 their daughter Tara arrived. Since then, family has become the center of his life. The couple also maintains a residence in Spain, an old Andalusian mansion in Marbella that they acquired for more than 11 million euros.
That role as partner and support became clear again after Djokovic’s recent defeat at the Australian Open against Carlos Alcaraz. While the Murcian celebrated his historic triumph, his wife published a message that many read as an unfiltered declaration of love: “This man… is much more. It has brought me love, passion, joy and the intensity of sharing life with someone who never stops pushing their limits. Tonight I may not be able to sleep. Tomorrow he will play another final.
It is not the first time that he has been on the front line in difficult times. During the pandemic, when Novak was against vaccines against Covid-19 and that position cost him his absence from several tournaments, she defended him publicly, assuming the media wear and tear that that decision entailed.
In public, Jelena appears calm and focused on well-being, education and family. Privately, those around her speak of a protective, intense woman who is very aware that the career of an elite athlete is short and demanding. «A girlfriend of an athlete must be ready to commit. Their careers don’t last forever. When they finish, it will be our time,” he once said.
