Billie Jean King Net Worth 2024, Lifestyle and Tennis Career

Ever wonder what the highest-paid tennis player in the world has in net worth? These athletes have incredible net worth, which includes salary and endorsement deals. Explore and learn the secrets behind Billie Jean King's incredible wealth and her net worth in 2024.

One of the greatest tennis players of all time, King won twelve Grand Slam titles in singles, eleven in mixed doubles, and sixteen in women's doubles. She also won the singles championship at the first-ever WTA Tour Championships.

King has long been a pioneer in the fields of social justice and equality, and he supports gender equality. She won the famous Billie Jean King vs Bobby Riggs match in 1973 in the Battle of the Sexes. When she won the match, she was only 29 years while Bobby Riggs was 55 years old.

Must Read: Bjorn Borg Net Worth 2024, Early Life, Career, and Bio

Billie Jean King Net Worth 2024

With a net worth of $20 million, American tennis player Billie Jean King was formerly ranked as the top professional player in the world. King participated in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups as a member of the winning American squad.

She captained the United States in the Federation Cup for three years. In addition, King founded the Women's Sports Foundation and the Women's Tennis Association. In 1987, Billie Jean was inducted into the International Hall of Fame. In 2009, President Barack Obama honored Billie Jean King with the Medal of Freedom. King won the Fed Cup Award of Excellence in 2010.

Early Life

Billie Jean King was born in Long Beach, California, on November 22, 1943. She spent her childhood in a traditional Methodist home. Her father, Bill Moffitt, was a firefighter, and her mother, Betty, was a housewife. She had a younger brother.

When Billie Jean was ten years old, she was a fielder on a team that won the Long Beach softball championship. She also played basketball and softball. But her parents wanted her to play a girl-like sport, so she switched to tennis when she was 11 years old. With her own savings, she bought her first racket for $8.

On Long Beach's free public tennis courts, King received free instruction from tennis pro-Clyde Walker; one of those courts was later named the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Billie Jean first enrolled at Los Angeles State College after attending Long Beach Polytechnic High School. To concentrate on her tennis career, she dropped out of college in 1964.

Career

King began playing professionally in 1959 and participated in college tennis competitions. Billie Jean and Karen Hantze Susman made history in 1961 by being the youngest team to win the Wimbledon women's doubles championship. King won the Wimbledon singles championship for the first time in 1966 and then again in 1967 and 1968.

She also took home the singles titles from the 1968 Australian Open and the 1967 U.S. Open. She has won 20 Wimbledon titles and 13 United States titles, out of which 4 are singles. She has also won 4 French titles, including 1 single and two Australian titles. She has won a total of 39 Grand Slam Titles.

She was ranked as the top female tennis player in the world from 1966 to 1968, then from 1971 to 1972, and in 1974. She won the French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open in 1972. In 1973, her match against Bobby Riggs was viewed by 90 million people across more than 35 countries. She overcame Bobby Riggs.

In 1973, World Team Tennis (WTT), a mixed-gender tennis league, was co-founded by Billie Jean's ex-husband, Larry. Following her retirement from professional tennis, King joined the WTT as Commissioner in 1984, becoming the first female Commissioner in sports history.

She gained ownership of the league and held the position until 2001. Billie Jean coached the American women's Olympic tennis team and captained the team of U.S. Fed Cup retirement. The Fed Cup became the Billie Jean King Cup in 2020.

Personal Life

After becoming engaged in the fall of 1964, Billie Jean and Larry King were married in Long Beach, California, on September 17, 1965. Billie Jean acknowledged that Larry was the one who first exposed her to feminism and encouraged her to play tennis professionally.

In 1971, King started an affair with her secretary, Marilyn Barnett. Marlin was living in Billie Jean's house, free of rent. In 1979, Billie asked Marlin to leave her house, which she refused, and she blackmailed Billie with the letter that she wrote to Marlin during their relationship.

She threatened King to sue her. Following her attempted suicide, which involved jumping off the house's balcony, Marlin became paraplegic. In a May 1981 palimony suit, Barnett demanded half of the Kings' income and the Malibu home she had been living in.

A court ruling from December 1981 indicated that Barnett had to leave the residence and that her threats to make public any private communication she had with King in exchange for money were equal to blackmail. King and Larry got separated when King started a relationship with her game partner, Ilana Kloss.

On October 18, 2018, Billie and Kloss got married. King has also written books one of the Billie Jean King books, including Pressure Is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes.

Billie Jean King Award and Honors

Billie Jean King received a lot of awards and honors some of them are as follows

• In 1967, King was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
• In 1972, King was the first female athlete to be named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.
• In 1987, King received her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
• In 1999, King received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
• In 2007, King accepted the Sunday Times Sports Women of the Year Lifetime Achievement award.
• In 2014, She was included in ESPNW's Impact 25.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. Billie Jean King has won how many grand slams?

Ans: 12 Grand Slam championships were won by King in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles, making a total of 39 grand slams.

Q. How many times has Billie Jeans been ranked number one player?

Ans: Billie Jeans has ranked as the number one player six times.

Q. When did Billie Jean stop playing Tennis?

Ans: In 1983, Billie Jeans retired from professional Tennis.