Billie Jean Moffitt was born on the 22nd November 1943, in Long Beach, California USA, and is a former professional tennis player, best known for being the No. 1 on the WTA rankings, and winning 39 Grand Slam titles – 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King’s career started in 1959 and ended in 1983.
Have you ever wondered how rich Billie Jean King is, as of mid-2016? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that King’s net worth is as high as $15 million, earned largely through her successful pro tennis career.
Billie Jean King Net Worth $15 Million
Billie Jean King is a daughter of Bill Moffitt, a firefighter, and Betty, a housewife, comprising a conservative Methodist family. She went to Long Beach Polytechnic High School and later studied at California State University, Los Angeles. Billie Jean started playing tennis on the free public courts in Long Beach.
King made her Grand Slam debut in 1959 when she was only 15years-old, losing in the first round to Justina Bricka in three sets. King’s first major result came in 1961, when she won the women’s doubles at Wimbledon with Karen Hantze Susman. She won the competition nine more times (1962, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970-73, and 1979). Billie Jean won all four Grand Slams in singles: he Australian Open in 1968, French Open in 1972, Wimbledon in 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, and 1975, and the US Open in 1967, 1971, 1972, and 1974. From the beginning od the ‘open’ era, her net worth improved steadily.
King also won the majors in doubles and mixed doubles during the late 60’s and 70’s. Overall, Billie Jean won 129 titles (67 during the open era) and earned her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. She remains one of the greatest tennis players in history, and thanks to the titles she won during her career, King’s net worth significantly increased.
During her long professional career, King won numerous awards, including the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1967, Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year in 1972, Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 1999, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, among others.
Regarding her personal life, Billie Jean King was married to one of the founders of World Team Tennis, Larry King from 1965 to 1987; King had an abortion in 1971. Later, Billie Jean said that she decided to have an abortion because she thought that the marriage with Larry wasn’t strong enough to raise a child. However, the fact that she was interested in women more than in men had to do something with that decision. In 1968, she realized that she was a lesbian, and had an intimate relationship with her secretary Marilyn Barnett in 1971. Still, she didn’t ‘come out of the closet’ for a long time, mainly because of public opinion during the 70’s and 80’s.
In 2008, Billie Jean published her book called “Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes” in which she explains her sexuality and the struggles she went through along the way. King has residences in both New York and Chicago where she lives with her partner, Ilana Kloss. King has a younger brother, Randy Moffitt, who was a professional baseball player and played for the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays, during his 12-year-career.
