Why Anna Kournikova Disappeared From The Public Eye

Skip Bolen/Getty Images

Anna Kournikova was dubbed the Britney Spears of tennis and voted FHM's World's Sexiest Woman in 2002. She was everywhere — until she wasn't. A year later, injuries forced Kournikova to retire at age 21 and she stepped away from the spotlight. Nowadays, Kournikova focuses on her relationship with Enrique Iglesias and their three children. The former Russian athlete doesn't seem to miss the media attention of her adolescence and early adulthood. Kournikova was never a fan of it anyway. 

"The fame and everything, I guess most of it was created by you guys, by the media a lot of times, most of the time the yellow press. Never tried to pay attention," she said at the press conference following her and Martina Hingis' 2010 friendly match against Anne Hobbs and Sam Smith (via The Gazette). But she couldn't escape it, especially considering how young she was. "It was a little hard [at] times dealing with it being 16, 17 years old, reading some kind of crap about yourself," she said.

The media did get out of hand with its coverage of Kournikova. Even though she was an athlete, a lot of said coverage focused on her looks, with no regard for the fact she was a minor. "They ran all those photos of my butt," she told Sports Illustrated of her Wimbledon debut in 1997, celebrated just days after she turned 16. Kournikova put all this behind her when she left the sport in the early 2000s and she hasn't looked back.

Images Press/Getty Images

Despite her dislike for the media's portrayal of her, Anna Kournikova loved tennis and would have continued to play for years. But her promising career ended prematurely when a series of injuries made competing impossible. "Basically, I've had an injury nearly every single year," she told The Guardian in 2003. "In '97 I had a stress fracture and was out for three months; in '98 I had a torn ligament in my thumb and was out for three months; in '99 I had another stress fracture for three months."

Then, in 2001, she suffered another foot injury that proved a lot more serious than the previous ones. To fix the damage to her fifth metatarsal, Kournikova had to undergo surgery and was off the court for months on end. "In 2001 I didn't basically play the whole year," she said. She returned in 2002 with confidence, only to be hit by a thigh injury in April 2003, followed by a back injury two months later. The back injury proved to be the last straw.

That wasn't how Kournikova had envisioned her tennis retirement going down when she fell in love with the sport at age 5. "I never planned or thought that was going to be it," she told People in 2011. "My back really forced me to stop. It got so bad; I couldn't tie my shoes, literally. I would be in excruciating pain."

Since retiring from tennis in 2003, Anna Kournikova has primarily dedicated herself to her family. She seemingly attempted to make a career transition to reality TV, but it was short-lived. After only one season, Kournikova was forced out of "The Biggest Loser" in 2011 when contestants complained about her overly harsh approach. Other than some exhibition matches here and there, Kournikova has remained out of the public eye. And that's how she seems to like it.

In 2017, Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias managed to welcome twins in secret, proving they really value their privacy. "They basically only hang out with family and very close friends," a source told People. "They mostly keep to themselves." Having a baby is a life-transforming event, let alone two. But they loved every second of it. "I became a father 12 weeks ago and I can absolutely tell you two things: I love my babies! I love them very much," Iglesias opened up about his newborn twins during a March 2018 concert.   

Kournikova and Iglesias expanded their brood two years later, welcoming a daughter in January 2020. They've had their hands full since then. After becoming a mother, Kournikova has seemingly dedicated most of her time to her children. While she doesn't update it often, all of Kournikova's Instagram posts dating back to early 2020 feature her partner or their kids. She last posted in June 2024 to celebrate Iglesias. "Happy Father's Day to my man," she wrote.