Former tennis world number four, Jelena Dokic, has broken her silence following the death of her estranged father, Damir Dokic.
Jelena announced the news in a social media post on Wednesday night, revealing that Dokic had passed away on May 16.
In the heartfelt post, Jelena spoke about the “conflicting and complex emotions and feelings,” that come with mourning a father, whose relationship with her “has been difficult and painful with a lot of history.”
In announcing the death of Damir Dokic, it’s impossible to ignore the impact his relentless and life-altering abuse had on Jelena over the course of her life.
In her 2017 memoir Unbreakable, Dokic details the extent of her father’s brutality, noting that with every passing year, and despite her increasing levels of success, the emotional and physical abuse only worsened.
“At the age of 11, I was kicked. I was beat up constantly. I was hit with a leather belt to the point of bleeding, at times,” she recalled.
“I was afraid to look at those bruises in the mirror, but sometimes I would, and there was not a centimetre of skin that was not bruised. It was tough.”
Despite her shocking accounts of alleged abuse, one of the biggest revelations in Unbreakable was the pain she experienced after her father forced her to change her representative country from Australia to Yugoslavia, before removing the family from Australia in 2001.
Since retiring from the professional circuit in 2014, Dokic has been vocal about her mental health struggles.
“The loss of an estranged parent comes with a difficult and complicated grief,” her post continued. “It’s an end of a chapter and life as I know it.”
“For the end of this chapter, I choose to focus on a good memory like this picture,” she added, referring to the photo of her as a young girl in Yugoslavia with her father.
“And as always and especially important to who I am as a person and what I want to stand for which is respect, grace, kindness, dignity and empathy, I will and want to be that person in this situation too.”
Jelena requested privacy for herself and her family, and finished her post with “And my final words. RIP”
If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14.
Related articles:
- Jelena Dokic’s ‘Unbreakable’ Reveals The Harrowing Extent Of Father’s Abuse
- Jelena Dokic Spent The 2023 Australian Open Being Body-Shamed — Again
