Elina Svitolina announced on Monday that she and her husband Gaël Monfils are divorcing after five years of marriage.
The two have a common goal on both of their Instagram accounts. In it, Svitolina discusses the Russia-Ukraine war and how her reaction to Ukraine caused her to lose her marriage.
Svitolina briefly retired from tennis in 2025. In her Monday statement, she discussed the mental impact the war had on her after the scenes, including “sleepless nights, doubts and the feeling of slowly losing myself.”
Advertisement
Over the years, she has often spoken about how much she dreaded bringing her friends and family back to Ukraine while competing internationally in tennis. Svitolina has a foundation that has reportedly raised more than $1 million for people affected by the war.
In May, he spoke out about what happened to Ukraine after Marta Kostyuk said a gun had struck her near her family’s home in Kyiv.
“Of course, it’s very difficult. There was a huge attack that night and I had so many friends talking about it too, and it was very scary and I can’t even imagine her waking up and being so anxious and scared.
Too much, and must play a match. So of course it’s very difficult, very difficult, and I think he handled it as best he could. We’re kind of used to it, but of course in Martha’s case, when a gun is really close to your house, it’s running towards your parents, it’s terrifying.
You start to think about your life and what you are doing here, in a way, because you can potentially destroy your family. When we do this, maybe we don’t always talk about it, but it’s very hard, and I think we’ve been underestimating it for years and years.
Svitolina was away from tennis for about four months at the end of last year and returned in January 2026. She competed throughout this year and recently qualified for this year’s WTA Tour finals.
She is one of several Ukrainian tennis players who continued to refuse post-match handshakes with opponents from Russia or Belarus.
Advertisement
Svitolina thanked Monfils for her constant support, through “the greatest joys and the most intense moments”. He said he was “finding myself again” and admitting the hard truth: “I can’t do that in our marriage.”
She and Monfils got married in 2021 and their daughter Skai in 2022. Svitolina mentioned in that statement that her daughter will always come first, and she and Monfils can end their marriage, but not “our family.”