IT’S game, set and match for Greg Norman and tennis ace Chris Evert.
The Aussie golfer and successful businessman, nicknamed “The Shark,” and Evert, once the world’s No. 1 ranked woman player, announced their separation over the weekend after just 15 months of marriage.
Norman and Evert were wed in a lavish ceremony in the Bahamas in June of ’08, after both left their previous spouses to be with one another.
“Greg Norman at one time was my best friend, and a year and a half ago I would have taken a bullet for this guy,” Evert’s ex-husband, former professional skier Andy Mill, said at the time. “I didn’t realize he was the one who was going to pull the trigger.”
Norman paid an especially high price to wed Evert: His divorce from his wife of 25 years, former flight attendant Laura Andrassy, set him back a staggering $103 million.
Andrassy didn’t hesitate to offer insight into why the Norman-Evert union fizzled, telling the Sydney Sunday Telegraph, “I didn’t think it would last because they are both too alike. They are both high-profile, narcissistic people.”
A friend of Evert blamed the separation on the fact that she didn’t want to move into Norman’s $60 million estate on Jupiter Island, Fla.
“Chris hated the idea of living in the same place Greg shared with Laura,” the source told Britain’s Mirror. Another insider claims that Norman’s kids from his marriage to Andrassy were not fond of Evert “at all.”
Evert certainly had high hopes for the union, telling People magazine at the time of the wedding, “At our age, over 50, it’s not like you’re 18. Both of us have lived long enough to know what we’re doing.”
A rep for Evert released a statement saying, “Chris and Greg will remain friends and supportive of one another’s family.” A rep for Norman did not return a call.