Martina Navratilova reveals she is 'cancer-free', Billie Jean King reacts - 'Such wonderful news'

Published 21/03/2023 at 09:25 GMT

Martina Navratilova has revealed in an interview that "as far as they know I'm cancer-free" and that news has been met with relief and delight in the tennis world, including from another women's tennis legend, Billie Jean King. Navratilova, who had throat and breast cancer, said as part of the interview: “I was in a total panic for three days thinking I may not see next Christmas."

Former tennis players Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova

Image credit: Getty Images

Billie Jean King has given her reaction to the "wonderful news" that fellow women's tennis legend Martina Navratilova is "cancer-free".

Navratilova had been diagnosed with throat and breast cancer and disclosed in the interview that she was in remission, having received treatment for stage one of the disease back in January.

The 66-year-old, who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles and 10 major mixed doubles titles, said she "should be good to go” after more preventive radiation.

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Navratilova, the most successful women's player in the Open era with 59 major titles, told Piers Morgan on TalkTV in an interview that is to be broadcast on Tuesday: "As far as they know I'm cancer-free.

"I was in a total panic for three days thinking I may not see next Christmas.

"I noticed that my left lymph node was enlarged and I thought it was from a shingles vaccine I’d had a week before. But then a couple of weeks on, it didn’t go down so I called the doctor.

"The bucket list came into my mind of all the things I wanted to do, and this may sound really shallow, but I was like, okay, ‘which kick-ass car do I really want to drive if I live like a year?’”

A delighted King wrote in a social media post: "Such wonderful news from my dear friend, ⁦Martina. We are so happy for you!"

Navratilova previously underwent treatment for early-stage breast cancer in 2010 and she told Morgan how the radiation treatment and chemotherapy amounted to "definitely the hardest thing I've ever done".

"That was the hard part because the first week was both chemo and radiation at the same time,” she said.

“When you start feeling lousy you’re not sure if it’s from the chemo or the proton. I didn’t really feel the proton until week three but then you get a sore mouth and your throat starts closing.

"Everything’s swollen and very uncomfortable, and the proton makes your saliva weird. You don’t really taste things the right way. Chemo does the same thing to your throat but then it makes it dry.

"So, you’re just hit from all ends and I don’t think the doctors do a very good job of telling you how the s*** is going to hit the fan."

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