| Celebrated Name: | Billie Jean King |
| Real Name/Full Name: | Billie Jean King (Moffitt) |
| Gender: | Female |
| Age: | 78 years old |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1943 |
| Birth Place: | Long Beach, California, USA |
| Nationality: | American |
| Height: | 1.65m |
| Weight: | 65 kg |
| Sexual Orientation: | Straight |
| Marital Status: | Widow |
| Husband/Spouse (Name): | Larry King (m. 1965; div. 1987) |
| Children/Kids (Son and Daughter): | Yes (Sky, Katie) |
| Dating/Boyfriend (Name): | Yes (Ilana Kloss) |
| Is Billie Jean King Lesbian/gay? | No |
| Profession: | Tennis player |
| Salary: | N/A |
| Net Worth in 2024: | $25 million |
| Last Updated: | January 2024 |
Billie Jean King is a professional former tennis player. She is from America. Her ranking is #1 in the world. King has won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She has won the singles title at the WTA Tour Championships. She represented the US in the Federation Cup and the Wightman Cup. For more than three years, she was the United States’ captain in the Federation Cup.
King is an advocate for gender equality. In 1973, at the age of 29, she won the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. She was also the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association. She was also instrumental in persuading cigarette brand Virginia Slims to sponsor women’s tennis in the year 1970 and then went on to serve on the board of their parent company Philip Morris in the year 2000.
Maybe you know about Billie Jean King very well, but do you know how old and tall is she and what is her net worth in 2024? If you do not know, we have prepared this article about details of Billie Jean King’s short biography-wiki, career, professional life, personal life, today’s net worth, age, height, weight, and more facts. Well, if you’re ready, let’s start.
Early Life & Biography
Billie Jean Moffitt was in a conservative Methodist family. She was the daughter of Betty, who was a housewife, and Bill Moffitt, who was a firefighter. Her family background was athletic. Her mother has an interest in swimming, and her father played basketball, baseball, and a sprinter. Her younger brother, Randy Moffitt, became a Baseball pitcher, pitching for 12 years in the major leagues for the San Francisco Giants. She also has an interest in baseball and softball when she was a child, and her team went on to win the Long Beach softball championship.
She has attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School. In 1961, after graduating, she attended Los Angeles State College. She left school in 1964 to focus on tennis. In 1963, while attending Cal State, she met Larry King in a library.
Personal Life
Billie Jean and Larry King were engaged during the year 1964 and married in Long Beach, California, in September 1965. Billie Jean accepted Larry by introducing her to feminism and for pushing her to pursue tennis as a career. Billie Jean later stated that she “was totally in love with Larry” when they get married.
By 1968, King realized that she was attracted to women, and in 1971, she fell in an intimate relationship with her secretary, Marilyn Barnett. Billie Jean revealed her relationship with Marilyn Barnett, when it came into public in May 1981. Billie Jean publicly called it a fling and a mistake by feeling she could not admit to the extent of the relationship. She remained engaged with Larry. The lawsuit caused Billie Jean to lose $2 million in endorsements and forced her to prolong her tennis career to pay attorneys.
In 1971, she had an abortion that was made public in a Ms. magazine article. Larry had revealed Billie Jean’s abortion without even consulting her.
Age, Height, and Weight
Being born on 22 November 1943, Billie Jean King is 78 years old as of today’s date 6th January 2024. Her height is 1.63m tall, and her weight is 65 kg.
Career
In 1972, King’s triumph at the French Open made her only the fifth woman in tennis history to win the singles titles at all four Grand Slam events. She has won a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles. In women’s doubles, only the Australian Open title eluded her. King has won a record of 20 career titles at Wimbledon, six in singles, four in mixed doubles, and ten in women’s doubles.
In 1959, she began working with new coaches, including Alice Marble and Frank Brennan, who had won 18 Grand Slam titles as a player herself, as to competing on a huge level. In 1959, she made her debut in Grand Slam at U.S. Championships at the age of 15. There she lost in the first round, and soon she began playing at regional and international tennis championships.
In 1967, King successfully defended her title at the South African Tennis Championships by defeating Maria Bueno in the finals. She played the French Championships for the first time in her career, but there she lost in the quarterfinals to Annette Van of South Africa. One week later, at the Federation Cup in West Germany, King won all four of her matches, including victories over DuPlooy and Helga Niessen Masthoff.
King participated in the 1969 Australian summer tour for the second in a consecutive year. Unlike the previous year, King did not win a title there. She lost again in the quarterfinals of the Tasmanian Championships and the semifinals of the New South Wales Championships. At the Australian Open, King defeated Evonne Goolagong in the second round and Ann Haydon Jones in semifinals before losing to Margaret Court in finals.
Awards & Achievements
Some of Billie Jean King’s lifetime achievements are as follows:
- In 1967, King was the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
- In 1972, King became the first tennis player to be named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.
- In 1975, Seventeen magazine found that King was the most admired woman in the world through polls of its readers.
- In 1975, Sports Illustrated article about King, Frank Deford noted that she had become something of a sex symbol.
- In 1987, King was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
- In 1990, Life magazine stated her one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century”.
- In 1999, King was the recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
- In 1999 King was inducted into the Lesbian Hall of Fame and Chicago Gay.
- In 2007, King was presented by the 2007 Sunday Times Sports Women of the Year Lifetime Achievement award.
Net Worth & Salary of Billie Jean King in 2024
Billie Jean King is a former American professional tennis player. She has achieved a milestone in her career. She has an impeccable career record with a net worth of $25 million as of January 2024. She has achieved this net worth by contributing everything for tennis and made tennis a part of her life.
Billie Jean King is a marvelous tennis player. She has achieved various milestones in her career through the sort. She grew in poor family background. But she liked tennis from a very early age of her life. Her family supported her a lot. Through hard work and dedication towards her sport, she has won millions of people’s hearts and became a tennis sensation. Soon she achieved huge stardom in her career.