MARIA SHARAPOVA has announced her engagement to Alexander Gilkes.
The ex-tennis star went public with their relationship back in 2018, after keeping it under wraps for some time before that.
Here’s everything you need to know about the man Sharapova is marrying.
Who is Maria Sharapova’s fiance Alexander Gilkes?
SHARAPOVA has been firmly off the market since beginning a relationship with Alexander Gilkes in 2018.
In March that year, the pair were snapped holding hands as they went on a date to an art gallery in Beverley Hills.
Gilkes, who is known as New York’s most well-connected Briton, is most famous for his marriage to the woman who got Prince Harry and Meghan Markle together – Misha Nonoo.
Nonoo, believed to be the Duchess of Sussex’s favourite fashion designer, began a relationship with Gilkes in 2003 and the couple tied the knot in Venice in 2012 before separating in 2016.
Who has Maria Sharapova dated?
EARLY in her career, Sharapova was rumoured to have had a short relationship with the Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine after they met at her 18th birthday party.
The fling resulted in a lawsuit from the pop star, who successfully sued a Russian publication who claimed that he’d broke things off because of criticisms about Sharapova’s sexual performance.
Those comments proved to be unfounded but despite a few dates, the relationship came to nothing and Levine eventually settled down with Behati Prinsloo, who he married in 2014.
FELLOW tennis star Andy Roddick was rumoured to be dating Sharapova as the pair were frequently snapped together at the 2016 US Open.
After a media frenzy, the pair played up to their ‘Rodapova’ tag and Maria was spotted wearing a T-shirt that said ‘love is in the air’.
Roddick eventually came out and flat out denied a relationship, stating: “We’re not dating. I’ve said it a million times already, but you guys refuse to write it.” He’s now married to model Brooklyn Decker and has two children.
WHILST sidelined with a shoulder injury in 2008, Sharapova dated the television producer Charlie Ebersol.
He’d survived a plane crash which killed his brother three years earlier and is the son of former NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol.
Sadly it wasn’t to be and the pair broke up in the same year, with Ebersol eventually going on to date Britney Spears.
SHARAPOVA met Sasha Vujacic, a 6ft7 basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, in 2009.
He proved to be an avid supporter on the court, shouting encouragement from the stands and getting increasingly animated as games went on.
The pair announced their engagement in 2010, but called it off after the US Open just two years later.
ANOTHER fellow tennis player, Grigor Dimitrov and Sharapova got together after he saw her playing in 2013 – and ‘decided to email her right away’.
The Bulgarian had formerly been with Maria’s on-court nemesis Serena Williams, who refused to make a comment about the pair whilst they were together.
But after another painful Wimbledon defeat in 2015, ironically to Williams, the pair called it quits and went their separate ways – and Sharapova hasn’t had a long-term relationship since.
