Martina Navratilova: ‘I’ve always tried to do the right thing rather than the popular thing’

Martina Navratilova, tennis superstar and human rights activist, is sitting in her Miami home, the sun streaming in through the open door behind her. We are speaking on Zoom with a background chorus of barking dogs and chirping parrots – the loudest being a black-legged caique named Mango. “She makes sounds like the alarm system,” she says, laughing, “so I think a fire is going off when it’s just Mango talking.”

Navratilova won the Wimbledon women’s singles title a record nine times, including six in a row from 1982-87. In all, she won 59 slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, more than any player in history. In 2006 she won the mixed doubles at the US Open just before her 50th birthday – and 32 years after her first trophy at a major.

But since retiring from tennis, she has hardly been quiet. A formidable activist, she spends much of her time advocating for a range of causes, from equal rights to Aids research. She has spoken out against immigration control and racism in the US.

I first met Navratilova in 2010 when I interviewed her in London about her commitment to lesbian and gay rights. More recently we were in touch about the campaign for the release from prison in Tennessee of Cyntoia Brown, given a life sentence in 2004 at the age of 16 for defending herself against a sex buyer whom she feared would kill her.

The year after coming out, Navratilova beat her arch-rival Chris Evert to become the 1982 Wimbledon women’s champion. The press focused more on her sexuality than her achievements on court: she lost millions of dollars in sponsorship deals but became a lesbian role model. Navratilova will be back in the UK this week commentating for the BBC during the Wimbledon fortnight.

She still pulls no