By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Photo credit: GEMS Life Instagram
Emotional ravaging from the ongoing war in Ukraine changed Elina Svitolina’s perspective on life.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine compelled Svitolina to re-assess her life, but the war wasn’t the primary reason for her split from husband Gael Monfils, Svitolina said today.
The popular couple stunned the tennis world yesterday as Svitolina announced the end of their five-year marriage on social media. That announcement also prompted wide-spread speculation on causes that ended the beloved couple’s love story.
Today, Svitolina clarified the cause for the couple’s split.
Former world No. 3 Svitolina said Russia’s unprovoked attack on her home country of Ukraine four-and-a-half years ago prompted her to re-examine her life. Svitolina said she had an epiphany: “I didn’t want to keep living a life where I wasn’t truly happy.”
“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,” Svitolina posted on Instagram today. “Your perspective changes, your values and priorities shift, and you begin to understand what you truly want out of life.
“At some point, I simply realized that I didn’t want to keep living a life where I wasn’t truly happy. And believe me, coming to this decision was anything but easy.”
Svitolina and Monfils were together as a couple for about seven years. The pair got engaged on April 3rd, 2021 and wed in a lavender-colored wedding ceremony on July 16th, 2021. Svitolina gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Skai, on October 15th, 2022.
Today, the 32-year-old Ukrainian suggested she wrote a follow-up post after reading some on social media speculate infidelity may have contributed to the break-up.
Svitolina reiterated her love for Monfils and noted it’s not always possible to provide all of the personal details of a painful split.
“I love and respect my husband very much. And I will always love and appreciate him for the person he is,” Svitolina posted on Instagram. “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.”
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