"That would be sort of healing for me" - When Derek Jeter's wife Hannah revealed her plans of reconnecting with the sport she played growing up

As is often the case with anyone, Derek Jeter's wife Hannah Jeter was also faced with a decision to drop the sport they love in order to build a successful professional career in something else.

Hannah's tennis career is not a well-known piece of info. The former Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model started playing tennis at the early age of eight and she went on to win with the Caribbean National tennis team in the Caribbean Tennis Circuit.

Hannah was a competitive tennis player with aspirations of taking her talents to the highest level. However, as her modeling career flourished, she was faced with a difficult decision that ultimately led her away from the sport she loved. She spoke about it in an interview with Editorialist in July 2024.

“It was devastating when I gave it up,” she said. “I don’t know how to play for fun, because I played to compete, to win."

She longs for once again getting back to that tennis court one day:

"I hope one day I can get back into it. I think that would be sort of healing for me."

Derek Jeter's wife Hannah shares firsthand account of early modeling career

Dropping tennis as a career was a big deal for Hannah. However, her modeling journey was anything but smooth.

She was swept into the fast-paced world of modeling, where she juggled commercial gigs, editorial shoots and runway appearances in New York. Despite that, she was met with criticism earlier in her career.

“I felt like I didn’t really belong in either one,” she said in the same interview. “Some clients would say, ‘You’re too curvy,’ and some would say, ‘You just shot bikini for this client, so we don’t want you shooting editorial for this client.’ I wanted to do a little of everything, but couldn’t figure out where my place was.”

Hannah’s big break came when she landed her first feature in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue. She was all over the place on what required to be done until her agent said to be herself. She said:

“A few years before I got the cover, when I was just a girl in the magazine, I remember talking to my agent and saying, ‘Okay, what should I do before the shoot? Do I need to dye my hair? Do I need to lose weight?’ And they were like, ‘Girl, they love you as you are.'”

At present, Hannah and Derek Jeter are leading their life with four children at home.