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Ukrainian tennis pro Elina Svitolina explained that her decision to end her and Gaël Monfil’s marriage came down to more than Russia’s war in her native country.
The pair announced they were ending their marriage of five years in a joint Instagram post Monday, in which Svitolina, 32, shared she lost herself in the ongoing war and “with time, I came to understand that I need to find my way back to myself and that I cannot do that within our marriage.”
In another statement Tuesday, Svitolina further “clarified” her decision — and she explained that the 40-year-old Frenchman retired earlier than expected due to their divorce.
“I just want to clarify my previous post a little, because I realized that not everyone, especially my international audience, fully understood what I was trying to say,” Svitolina, who is ranked world No. 6, wrote.
“In that post, I shared only one of the reasons that influenced my decision and made me reflect on my life and my future. But the truth is, there’s so much more to it, and it was never just about one thing.
“When you’ve been living through the reality of war for more than 4.5 years, experiencing so many different situations, emotions, and difficult moments, you naturally start seeing life differently. Your perspective changes, your values and priorities shift, and you begin to understand what you truly want out of life.”
Svitolina and Monfils, who got married in Switzerland in July 2021, share a daughter named, Skaï, born in October 2022.
“At some point, I simply realized that I didn’t want to keep living a life where I wasn’t truly happy,” she said. “And believe me, coming to this decision was anything but easy. I love and respect my husband very much. And I will always love and appreciate him for the person he is. That’s exactly why it was so important for me to be honest, both with him and with myself.
“It’s not always possible to explain everything behind such personal and difficult decisions in a single post. And honestly, some things are simply too personal to share publicly. That was and is my view on announcing the end of our marriage but as some of you saw, Gael’s career ended abruptly after he made the decision to stop based on our situation. Unfortunately he had many accusations thrown at him and he didn’t deserve that, so we jointly released a statement.
“I just hope this helps you understand a little better what I was trying to say but please be kind and understanding, this is incredibly tough for us both right now 💔”.
Monfils — who previously announced last year that he would retire after a 22-year career at the Paris Masters in November — was registered as retired by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on Oct. 5.
The 13-time ATP Tour singles champion withdrew from a wild card spot at the ATP 250 event in Lyon on Monday for “personal reasons,” the tournament said.
Monfils played his last professional match Sept. 3, losing in the second round of the US Open to Learner Tien (6–3, 6–4, 6–3).
Svitolina and Monfils reached the US Open mixed doubles semi-finals together in August.
She is in the midst of a stellar 2026 campaign.