Björn Borg and the end of the traumatic marriage with an Italian singer: “He preferred cocaine to me,”

 

Björn Borg is a brilliant legend in the world of tennis. The Swede is, without a doubt, one of the athletes who marked a before and after on the circuit. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 66 titles, eleven of them Grand Slam titles (six Roland Garros and five Wimbledon). Charismatic, talented, winner... he built cinematic duels in romantic times of tennis, with figures like John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and Guillermo Vilas, among others. It is also known that his life, after becoming a professional, had ups and downs due to his addictions. A dark and deep stage that, from time to time, returns to the scene due to comments from third parties.

The Italian singer and actress Loredana Berté, who was married to Borg between 1989 and 1993, when the Nordic had already retired, once again referred to the addictions suffered by the former world number one. “When we got married, he preferred cocaine to me,” said Berté, 73, during an interview with the Rai 2 radio station in which he reiterated concepts expressed in his memoirs published a few years ago and in which he recounts the ordeal that that marriage turned out to be.

Loredana Berté, currently

Berté, who was a pop icon during the '80s and met Borg during a holiday in Ibiza in 1988, said the former tennis star's addiction to drugs and prostitutes were decisive in the couple's breakup. “I couldn't accept it,” Berté explained, according to the ANSA agency , when commenting on the sexual demands of the Swede, from whom he decided to separate after a specific event that ended up being decisive.

“Once we were in Palm Beach after an exhibition game and when he returned to the hotel I saw him pick up the phone and call room service asking them to send him two prostitutes,” he said. “They arrived dressed in leather and with whips and he told me that we should go to another level in our relationship,” the singer continued.

According to Berté, immediately afterwards he began “beating him until he was black and blue and then I left. When we returned to Milan, I didn't allow him to enter the house and that day everything ended," added Berté, to whom after divorcing, Borg had to pay a maintenance fee of 20 thousand dollars a month because - as he explained - his marriage with the former tennis player ended. for destroying his career.

Bjorn Borg with the 1979 Roland Garros trophy, after beating the Paraguayan Víctor Pecci - Credits: @Gilbert UZAN

Addictions, meanwhile, were about to cost Borg himself his life, who in 1989 attempted suicide by ingesting a large amount of barbiturates. “I never understood why he did it,” confessed the Italian singer, who two years later was also hospitalized in serious condition in Milan. In her memoirs, the singer known as the “Sofia Loren of Italian rock” even suggested that Borg lost the 1981 Wimbledon final to McEnroe because of his drug addiction.

Today, at 67 years old, Borg looks radiant, enjoying his status as a racket sports star. For several seasons he was the coach of the European team at the Laver Cup, the exhibition tournament organized by Roger Federer's company. In addition, he usually performs in some special Grand Slam matches, is active on social networks and accompany his tennis player son, Leo Borg (20 years old, 395th in the world ranking), in some competitions.

Great Bjorn Borg moments