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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rutland
Posts: 25,358
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rutland
Posts: 25,358
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The real reason Martina Navratilova is in the jungle
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The real reason Martina Navratilova is in the jungle It's a question mystifying millions of TV viewers.
Just what motivated sporting legend Martina Navratilova to sign up for I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here and hang out with irritating Z-listers Timmy Mallet and David Van Day?
The nine times Wimbledon champion definitely does not need the cash or a career resurrection. Some speculated that her insatiable drive to win might be her driving force.
But the Mirror can now reveal that she has dumped Toni Layton-Lambert, her lover of seven years out of the blue, and is embroiled in a multi-million dollar legal wrangle.
A friend said: “Basically, she’s very lonely.” She ended her affair with Toni, who left her husband for the tennis legend, in a slanging match outside their home seven months ago.
No one knew until now that the once devoted couple had split.
A neighbour said: “It was pretty wild. Everyone living nearby could hear what was going on. They were both out in the street and Martina was yelling at the top of her voice and saying things like, ‘I want you out of my life’ and ‘I never want to see you again.’
“Toni was devastated. She ran down the street in tears.
“She was so totally in love and devoted to Martina and later told us she had absolutely no idea it was coming.”
The former Czech star had parted from Judy Nelson, her partner for seven years, in 1991 in an acrimonious split. But it seemed she had found true love again 10 years later with Toni, the wife of her Jeffrey Lambert, Martina’s bookkeeper.
Martina wooed Toni, who is in her 50s, and they became inseparable.
A neighbour said: “We were all a bit shocked when Toni and Martina got together. It was all a bit complicated but eventually Toni and Jeff got divorced.”
Another friend said: “When they were together they really were very happy.
“Martina loved having someone to talk to and spend quality time with. Toni was her rock.”
They lived in a £1.5million waterfront mansion with their 17 dogs. The luxury house outside the pretty Florida coastal town of Nokomis had a white picket fence and gardens filled with fragrant bougainvillea and palm trees.
Bizarrely Martina, who owns four Florida properties, bought the house next door and Toni’s ex Jeff moved in.
A neighbour said: “Toni was loved by everyone around here.
“She’s an incredibly warm and generous person who would do anything for anybody. She was friends with everyone, while Martina kept herself very much to herself.”
Martina dedicated her fitness book, Shape Yourself, to Toni, calling her “someone pretty darn special”.
She wrote inside it: “When I wanted to dedicate this book to her, she asked me not to do that, but instead to dedicate it to all those who inspire others, not just in words but in deeds because she would not be my inspiration if she had not been inspired by others.”
They also bought a 20 acre ranch 30 miles away in Myakka where they looked after abandoned animals, including a donkey, horses, goats, sheep and cows. Martina has now sold their home and Jeff’s but Toni is fighting to hold on to animal sanctuary.
The neighbour said: “Toni was Martina’s partner and lover for more than seven years. But she was far more than that.
“She helped organise and run her life, frequently travelled with her, helped with business ventures and was even very heavily involved with the animal sanctuary. There was nothing she didn’t do for Martina.”
Unlike Judy, Martina never paid Toni a wage and it is thought she is now penniless and is fighting for a settlement.
Her split from Judy, cost Martina £7.5million in “palimony”. Judy later wrote two hurtful books about their relationship.
A friend said: “Toni is still heartbroken but is gradually getting over the split. Maybe she now wishes she had read Judy Nelson’s first book before she got involved with Martina?
“The book contains a lot of warnings as to how Martina suddenly changed. It really is history repeating itself.
“From what many people have said, she had no idea that Martina was suddenly going to end their relationship. It was quite brutal.”
Martina has had a full life since retiring from tennis. She is involved in charities for underprivileged children, animals and gay rights.
She earned her pilot’s licence, built furniture, wrote mysteries, took photos in Africa and mounted an art exhibition in Prague.
But will pitting her wits against Wags, TV presenters and a boy band singer prove stimulating enough for the world’s most famous tennis player?
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Source: Daily Mirror
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24-11-2008, 12:30 AM
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it must have taken you some tme to print it
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