Tennis legend Martina and the Russian beauty
AT 19 she found fame as the last “Queen of Russia” after being crowned Miss USSR shortly before the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Now Julia Lemigova, 36, is believed to be back in the limelight as the secret love of tennis legend Martina Navratilova.
Reports in France say the Moscow-born beauty is engaged to Navratilova, 52, after a low-key relationship.
The two women were pictured in public together for the first time while on holiday in St Tropez.
It is believed Lemigova is the mystery “drop dead beautiful” girlfriend Navratilova spoke of when she appeared on ITV1’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! last year.
Dressed casually in shorts and T-shirts, the pair were spotted taking in the sights of the French Riviera where they went shopping before enjoying a boat trip together.
Both women were wearing rings on their left hands.
After being crowned Miss USSR in 1991 model Lemigova, who speaks English, Italian, Russian and French, moved to western Europe.
She has lived in Paris since the 1990s. From her base there she set up her own cosmetics firm, White Russia, and opened the Joiya spa in the city.
She is not the first beauty queen Navratilova has fallen for. The tennis star’s relationship with Judy Nelson, a former Miss Texas, ended acrimoniously in 1991 after seven years together.
Nelson, who left her husband and two young sons to set up home with Navratilova, later sued the tennis star for £4.5million.
And Navratilova could be heading for the courts again after becoming embroiled in legal action with another former lover, Toni Layton, in Florida where they shared six multi-million pound homes.