Recently, there was a mini-meltdown on social media, and not for the first time Jelena Dokic found herself in the thick of it. Thanks to renewed public speculation about her current body size and shape (Had she succumbed to diet culture? Was it Ozempic? Was she no longer proud of her plus-size curves? And exactly how much did she weigh now?), the tennis commentator posted some side-by-side photos of herself on Instagram taken 10 months apart – and yes, she looked noticeably smaller in the more recent.
“It’s not good if you gain weight and it’s not good if you lose weight. It’s not good if you are a size 0, 10 or 18 it seems,” the fired-up star wrote in an open letter. “I still want people to value me, and others, based on whether we are good people. I will always be proud of myself and not hide or be embarrassed, no matter what size I am.”
There was a deluge of commentary on the post – the overwhelming majority praising Jelena for being open about her journey, and a few naysayers questioning her motives. Equally, it sparked debates on radio and breakfast television, along with a slew of opinion columns looking at the issue of why we continue to talk about women’s bodies in 2024.
This continuing focus on her outward appearance is a source of constant frustration to a woman who has journeyed to hell and back. Who has overcome childhood abuse, battled an eating disorder, dealt with mental health issues, rebuilt herself as a strong, empowered voice for others, and who is a very staunch champion of body positivity.
Jelena Dokic is passionate about advocating for women taking charge of their health – both mental and physical. And it’s for that reason that she’s speaking with The Weekly today about the changes she’s made in the face of her own health issues, and the pay-off that she’s finding as a result.
Our cover shoot and chat have come in the middle of a particularly busy period for Jelena. As we speak, Wimbledon is wrapping up and she’s preparing for her only holiday of the year – an annual 10-day pilgrimage to Europe. And, she says, it was this full-throttle period last year which saw her make some changes in her own life – ones which did lead to some weight loss, albeit not as a priority, rather as an understandable by-product.
“For me, the three most important things are mind, body and soul,” Jelena says of her holistic approach to health in her fourth decade.
“It’s about what makes you feel good, what makes you feel comfortable. It’s about embracing who you are but also, as you get older, finding what works for you. And it’s a balance.
“I’ve been on two different ends of the spectrum when it comes to my body and my mental health. It’s not good being on one or the other, and I have found that health is a balance. It’s moderation. I’ve really tried to be attuned to my body.”
Last September, Jelena was exhausted. She was struggling to stay awake through the long nights of commentating and fuelling up on quick pick-me-up foods to get by. The sleep she did have felt disrupted and never enough. Add in speaking engagements and book tours, and finding time for exercise and other healthy habits fell by the wayside.
Yes, she was wearing a larger dress size. But what was worrying was that she’d seen both her cholesterol and blood pressure spike alarmingly. With a family history of diabetes and high blood pressure she knew she needed to do something to get this under control before it was too late.
“It was never about losing weight,” she says firmly. “I want to make that very clear. What happened was that I have naturally low blood pressure and then it went high, and I knew it was because I was so busy.
“I have an extremely unpredictable, hectic, busy lifestyle. Sometimes my days are nights, and my nights are days. I’m up at 3am for flights, going to bed at 3am after commentary. There are at least four or five months a year where I don’t even have weekends off.
“I love working – I’m a workaholic, I’d say – but I pushed myself to the limit. I took on every single opportunity because I love what I do, but I had no time.”
And so she started carving it out intentionally.
“The first thing I did was not go for junk food late at night as I realised that was making me tired and sluggish,” Jelena says of how she approached her new routine. “Then I went, okay, I’ve got 15 minutes here – I’m just going to get back to exercising. So I’d do a 10-minute walk. Small changes make a world of difference. And that kept going.
“I’m not someone who is now going to exercise seven days a week for three hours a day. I’m just going to do a little – 15 or 20 minutes if that’s all I have. I like to break a little bit of a sweat, it makes me feel better, have a shower after and that’s it – I’m up.
“It’s other little things. Now, I don’t hit the snooze button on my alarm. I get up straight away. I go straight to the bathroom, brush my teeth, splash my face with the coldest water possible five or six times. Straight away I feel like I’ve accomplished something, and it wakes me up before I’m even dressed. I’ll do a bit of a dance in the morning for a minute or two while I brush my teeth with a song that makes me happy.”
Doing what makes you feel good might sound simplistic, but for someone who started life in a war zone where food was scarce, then undertaking years of training as a professional athlete striving for perfection, it’s a mantra that has taken a while to embed itself. And it’s not lost on her that even when she was at her fittest – achieving great results on a tennis court while also dealing with a father who abused and silenced her – she was hearing unwanted outside opinions on her body and her health.
Back in 2005, as the Australian Open neared, a journalist wrote that Jelena would be wise to avoid the Christmas pudding over the holiday break. It was an unwarranted and ill-advised opinion that a slightly larger body pointed to someone who was also out of shape and unfit.
Jelena’s a tough cookie now, she says, but for others that kind of talk buries itself deep and can be incredibly destructive. It’s why she started taking on the trolls on social media, hitting back at people’s judgement on weight and size.
Calling out the body shamers felt like the right thing to do – and she won a dedicated league of fans in the process. It’s also why she’s been so open about her childhood trauma. Why she’s bared all about suffering from an eating disorder in addition to depression, anxiety, PTSD and bipolar disorder. And why she’s adamant that – at the end of the day – what matters most is if people are kind, not what they look like on the outside.
Having penned two books, Unbreakable (2017) and Fearless (2023), she’s publicly lived each and every ugly moment of her toughest years over and over again.
“But at the end of the day I’m finding that people – especially women and young girls – really resonate with that, because life is not all sunshine and rainbows,” she says. “People need to feel like they are not alone in their struggles.
“When I retired [from tennis at 29], I was a shadow of myself. I literally couldn’t string two sentences together, I was afraid to get out of the house, I couldn’t look people in the eye, I had no social skills left.
“To now have found my voice – and to believe in myself and not care what other people think and have a really positive mindset – I never thought that would be the case.”
Today she prides herself on not only being a survivor but becoming a “thriver”. Yes, she was a victim – and speaking about that is important. Surviving – picking herself up again and again – was tough. But to thrive in these years? That’s what she sees as the ultimate light at the end of the tunnel for others who may not see it right now.
To that point, one of the greatest things her struggles have taught her, says Jelena, is that there is strength in vulnerability. By opening up about your fears and letting go of the myth of perfectionism, a whole new – and far brighter – world can emerge.
But equally, she learnt that you cannot be an island. “You need three things,” she says now with conviction. “You need to believe in yourself. You need something to believe in – something big that you can achieve – and you need just one person to believe in you. If that happens you can move mountains.”
For Jelena, there are several people across her life who have played that final role. Coming from a fractured family, she has created a small but mighty circle of close supporters who she knows she can rely on, no matter the circumstances.
There are three she calls out today. The first is her ex-boyfriend, Tin Bikic. The pair first met when they were 20 and were together for 19 years before he called time on it two days before Christmas in 2021. Despite this, they are “on great terms,” says Jelena. “He is the kindest and best person with the best heart. His belief in me through the good and the bad and the worst really saved my life.”
The second is Tin’s mother, Slava, who sadly passed away from cancer five years ago. It was Slava who took Jelena not only into her home but her heart as a traumatised 20-year-old.
“She showed me a kindness that I’d never seen before,” Jelena says, tearing up at the memory of the woman who stepped up as proud parent, putting together scrapbooks of her achievements and tuning in to watch each game she went on to commentate. “She went through a lot in her life, but you never would have known it. She taught me so much about kindness and gratitude.”
And the third is fellow former tennis pro Todd Woodbridge. The pair met on the circuit just two years before Jelena bowed out. And the first thing he did when she announced her retirement, she recalls with a smile, was say, “What are we going to do?”
The “we” was important as her mental health was at its lowest ebb. From feeling like a person barely existing, she went on to have a massive supporter who built her up and pushed her forward.
“He said, ‘You can commentate, you can be on TV. You can do so much with your experience and your story,’” she says, still shaking her head in disbelief at the faith Todd had in her.
Of course, he was right. Jelena has gone on to carve out an impressive commentating and public speaking career. She’s also remained incredibly close to Todd, who helps her not only with her career, but her personal life.
When she broke up with Tin, Todd was the first person Jelena called. He immediately swooped in, scooped her up and took her to his family home. It was two days before Christmas, and late at night, but overnight he organised for a therapy session for first thing the next day.
“I always say, ‘Be somebody’s Todd’,” Jelena says now. “Be somebody’s Tin. Be somebody’s Slava. In 15 years, I hope somebody says, ‘Be someone’s Jelena’. That’s my ultimate goal.”
