Maria Sharapova's fiancé Alexander Gilkes sends touching message to Russian on 38th birthday

Maria Sharapova's fiancé, Alexander Gilkes, recently shared a heartfelt birthday wish for her. The former Russian tennis player turned 38 on April 19.

Sharapova and Gilkes were first speculated to be dating in January 2018, and then two years later, in 2020, the latter proposed to the player, and they announced their engagement on social media. After two years of this, they welcomed their son, Theodore, in July 2022.

The couple usually shares updates with each other on social media, and most recently, Gilkes uploaded a picture of them on his Instagram story, wishing Sharapova a happy birthday. He shared a picture of them celebrating her 38th birthday in Japan in a restaurant named Sugalabo, where the former world No.1 posed with a birthday cake in front of her.

Gilkes added his wish in the story's caption, which read:

"Happy Japanese Birthday my love 🎂🍓🇯🇵"

Alexander Gilkes’ Instagram story | Source: IG/@gilkesa

Sharapova recently also went on a beach vacation with Gilkes and their son, Theo, and shared glimpses of the same on her Instagram story. In the first story, she shared a glimpse of her son adoring cheese at a store while holding a basket carrying dairy products. The story's caption read:

"* loves cheese"

Just after this, she shared pictures and videos of Gilkes and Theo enjoying themselves on the beach. In the video, the father and son duo were seen chasing seagulls on the beach, and the story's caption read:

"Seagulls."

When Maria Sharapova made her feelings known about being a mother

Maria Sharapova once opened up about her mindset on being a mother when she attended the 2024 Wimbledon Championships in London. While she was there, she sat for an interview with Martina Navratilova and Steve Weissman at the Tennis Channel, where she fielded questions surrounding the ins and outs of being a mother.

The Russian was asked about raising her two-year-old son, Theo. Opening up about her experience in motherhood, she said that it's been one of the best things that has ever happened to her. Along with this, she also revealed that she learned a lot of negotiation skills in parenthood.

"It's going. There's a lot of negotiation skills that go on with parenthood which I didn't know that the negotiations that I learned through my career in business and in the sport that I would apply to parenthood. But I'm learning about that every day. You got to give something to take something," Maria Sharapova said [at 0:25].

She further added:

"It's been one of the best things that's happened to me in my life and I get to teach him and grow with him. I get to learn through his actions and his findings. He's exploring the world and I get to explore with him. He has very long eyelashes and I don't know where they come from but I appreciate them," she added [0:41].

Maria Sharapova retired from tennis in February 2020 after competing at the 2020 Australian Open.