Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King Basic Information

Stage Name:	Billie Jean King
Real Name:	Billie Jean Moffitt
Occupation:	Professional Tennis Player (Retired)
Date Of Birth/Age:	November 22, 1943 (80) Years Old
Place of Birth:	Long Beach, California, U.S.
Gender:	Female
Nationality:	American
Marital Status:	Divorced
Education:	Long Beach Polytechnic High School Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles)
Height:	1.64 m
Net Worth:	$20M

Billie Jean King Biography

Billie Jean King (née Moffitt), born November 22, 1943, is a former world number one tennis player from the United States. King won 39 Grand Slam singles trophies, 16 women’s doubles titles, and 11 mixed doubles titles. King was a member of the United States’ winning teams in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. She captained the United States in the Federation Cup for three years.

Many consider King to be one of the best tennis players of all time, and he was elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1990, she was elected into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 2006, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City was renamed after her.

Family

Parents

Billie Jean Moffitt was born in Long Beach, California, into a strict Methodist family, the daughter of housewife Betty (née Jerman) and firefighter Bill Moffitt. Her mother was an excellent swimmer, and her father excelled at basketball, baseball, and track. At the age of 11, she moved from softball to tennis when her parents suggested she pick a more ‘ladylike’ sport.

Siblings

Randall James “Randy” Moffitt is an American athlete who was born on October 13, 1948. He pitched for the San Francisco Giants, the Houston Astros, and the Toronto Blue Jays. He is the younger brother of tennis player Billie Jean Moffitt King, who was born in Long Beach, California. He was a reliable reliever for many years, finishing in the National League Top Ten in saves four times and games pitched three times.

Children

Billie Jean has no biological children, but in the film Battle of the Sexes, she and her companion, Ilana Kloss, are identified as the godparents of the Kings’ children.

Spouse

Billie Jean and Larry King became engaged in the fall of 1964 and married on September 17, 1965, in Long Beach, California. Larry was credited for exposing Billie Jean to feminism and encouraging her to pursue tennis as a career. By 1968, King had recognized her attraction to women. Billie Jean, however, subsequently admitted that she “was totally in love with Larry” when they married.

Billie Jean’s marriage ended in 1987 when she fell in love with her doubles partner, Ilana Kloss. Ilana Sheryl Kloss, born March 22, 1956, is a former professional tennis player, tennis teacher, and World TeamTennis commissioner from 2001 to 2011. She was the World No. 1 doubles player in 1976 and the World No. 19 singles player in 1979.

Lifestyle

Net Worth

Billie Jean King’s net worth has been generally claimed to be around $20 million, however this amount has not been officially verified. Billie Jean King became one of the first immensely wealthy tennis players after ushering in the professional era.

She is claimed to have made millions of dollars during her career, but she lost all of her endorsement contracts when it was exposed that she was gay in 1981. Despite this, sources claim that she currently has a $1 million contract with Glamour.

Cars

The car Billie drives and her auto collection are not revealed to the media.

House

She purchased a seaside property in Malibu for around $500,000 in 1981. Her mansion would cost more than a million dollars now. In 1972, she also built an ocean house in Kauai, Hawaii’s tropical North Shore.

Tennis Career

With her French Open victory in 1972, King became only the fifth woman in tennis history to win singles titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments, a feat known as a “career Grand Slam.” She also won a Grand Slam in mixed doubles during her career. Only the Australian Open eluded her in women’s doubles.

At Wimbledon, King set a record with 20 career titles, including six in singles, ten in women’s doubles, and four in mixed doubles. From 1959 through 1983, King competed in 51 Grand Slam singles events, reaching the semi-finals in 27 of them and the quarterfinals in 40.

King won 129 singles titles, 78 of which were WTA titles, for a total of US$1,966,487 in her career. She was a member of the winning United States squad in seven Federation Cup finals, from 1963 to 1979. Her overall career record was 52-4. She won her last 30 matches, including 15 straight singles and doubles victories.

Her lifetime win-loss record in Wightman Cup competition was 22-4, with nine wins (six in singles and three in doubles). The United States won the cup in ten of the eleven years she competed.