Martina Navratilova and wife Julia Lemigova postpone adoption plans in the wake of American icon's cancer diagnosis

As Martina Navratilova continues her fight with newly diagnosed cancer, her wife Julia Lemigova recently revealed that the couple have decided to postpone their adoption plans.

At the start of the year, the former World No. 1 announced that she was suffering from Stage 1 throat and breast cancer. The American legend defeated a similar disease in 2010 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and recovered completely following a six-month-long radiation therapy.

Navratilova and former Russian model Lemigova tied the knot in 2014 and were considering adopting a child before they were blown away by the devastating news in January. Touching on the subject, Lemigova stated in a recent interview with Andy Cohen that they had put their adoption plans on hold since they wanted the former player to recover first.

"When you're adopting a child, it has to be about the child. And right now it's everything about Martina and for her getting (healthy). We're putting it on hold. Even the sad moments seem to be so not important," Lemigova said.

"We were thinking any moment the agency would call and give us the happy news that we were going to have a baby. Instead, we are fighting two cancers. Like one is not enough. I'm just waiting for Martina to get better. We're not thinking about adoption. We're thinking about Martina. We'll just have to wait and see what happens," she added.

While making her cancer diagnosis public in January, Navratilova stated that she noticed a lymph node in her neck in November 2022. She also declared that despite the difficulty, she was ready to fight the problem.

“This double whammy is serious but still fixable. I’m hoping for a favorable outcome. It’s going to stink for a while but I’ll fight with all I have got," Martina Navratilova said.

After her revelation, researcher and CEO of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Karen E. Knudsen, said that the chances of Navratilova's recovery were extremely high due to the early detection of the disease.

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Martina Navratilova was the only player I watched while growing up: Petra Kvitova

Martina Navratilova was an 18-time Grand Slam champion

During the 2023 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Petra Kvitova stated that although she didn't watch a lot of tennis while growing up, she watched Martina Navratilova's matches as her father was a huge fan of the American icon.

"As a kid, I didn't really like to watch tennis in the TV, and if I had to watch something, it was a Martina Navratilova, because my father was a big fan of her. So I became kind of fan of her as well because I had to," Kvitova said.

Navratilova won 59 Grand Slam titles overall, including 18 singles, 31 doubles, and 10 mixed doubles trophies. She also spent 332 weeks as the World No. 1, only behind Steffi Graf (377) among women.