Australian tennis icon Jelena Dokic hard launches new relationship with Yane Veselinov

7NEWS

7 hours ago

Australian tennis icon Jelena Dokic has finally gone public with her new boyfriend Yane Veselinov.
The much-loved commentator hard launched the new relationship on Instagram.
The couple had previously been photographed together in May, but hadn't confirmed the romance publicly until now.
Dokic, 42, posted a photo of herself with Veselinov, writing: 'You are my calm, safe, peaceful and happy place. So glad I found you.❤️'
The post was quickly flooded with likes and comments from her adoring fans.
'Oh YAYYYYYY!!!! So happy for you xxxx you deserve all the joy and happiness life has to offer,' one fan wrote.
'This makes me so happy! You deserve all the happiness in the world Jelena!' Another said.
'You seem very happy. All the best Jelena x,' another wrote.
'So happy to see you happy,' another said.
Dokic was previously in a 19-year relationship with Tin Bikic that ended in 2021.
Since then she has rebuilt her life (she has previously stated that she was a mess after their romance ended) and undergone a huge transformation, both mentally and physically.
The story about the abuse she suffered from her late father Damir, who died last month, has also been detailed in the series Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story.
Dokic, who just wrapped up two weeks of commentating at Wimbledon for Channel 9, recently opened up on her desire to be a mum.
Despite her own tumultuous upbringing as a child and a young woman that left her forever mentally scarred, Dokic said she has so much love to give.
'I actually think I would be a good mum, to be honest,' Dokic said on the podcast Mental As Anyone.
'I love kids.'
But, despite that, Dokic sadly admits that her parenting dream may never be realised.
'I don't think that that's going to happen for me,' she said.
'I was in a relationship for almost 19 years from the age of 20 and right up to when we split up, we were about to start trying for a family.'
Dokic said that the abuse she received throughout her life never crushed her maternal instincts. Surprisingly, she said it might have even nourished them.
'Even 15 years ago, when I was 25, I always said, 'I want to have kids, but I want to adopt',' she said.
'Maybe it comes from when you grow up maybe in a home that's fractured and with pain and you go, maybe I can give something different to a kid that I know maybe will have the same, or they won't have parents or something like that.
'So I always felt like I wanted to do that for at least one kid in the world.
'That's a big kind of wish of mine and passion and I hope to do it one day.
'Did I at one stage maybe think, I didn't have the best experience and know a lot of people with parents and having that childhood and what would that mean for me?
'Because I know a lot people that have been through family violence or abuse, domestic violence, however you want to frame it, they are worried about that, whether they would be the same or if there's something there.'
Dokic said she would consider adopting a child, with or without a father.
'(But I'd) love it to have a father as well,' she said.
'I know that I can give it absolutely everything and would have all the love and support and I would be completely different and … I could never be that (like my father) ever.
'I know that yes, obviously, it's a challenge, which I would love. I would embrace it and take it on.
'I just love kids so much. I know I would be a bloody good mum and I know I would give it the love in the world of a million people.
'I have so much love to give.'