Former World No. 1 tennis star Arantxa Sánchez Vicario has revealed she is financially ruined and now pays half of her earnings to a bank as part of an agreement to avoid a prison sentence.
Speaking on Spanish TV programme Universo Callejo, the four-time Grand Slam champion said she trusted her ex-husband, Josep Santacana, with her finances while she focused on her career.
"I fell blindly in love, and he really isn't the person I thought he was," she said.
In 2024, a Barcelona court ruled that Sánchez Vicario and Santacana fraudulently concealed assets to avoid repaying a debt to Banque de Luxembourg.
Santacana was sentenced to three years and three months in prison, while Sánchez Vicario received a two-year suspended sentence as a first-time offender. The pair, who divorced in 2019, were also ordered to pay €6.6 million in compensation.
The 54-year-old insisted she was unaware of her ex-husband's financial dealings.
"I focused on playing tennis and never handled my own financial affairs because I didn't know how. I trusted my husband. And the [€36 million] vanished. I was left to shoulder the entire burden," she said.
She added that her freedom came at a heavy cost.
"I did not go to jail because I am paying 50 percent of my earnings to the bank. I am complying when deep down I was a victim," she said.
The tennis icon admitted the ordeal left her emotionally shattered.
"It was a shock. I had to go to therapy because I couldn't believe it. It was like waking up from a dream and thinking, 'This can't be happening to me.'"
Santacana has denied the allegations through his lawyer, insisting Sánchez Vicario's fortune disappeared before the events that led to the fraud case, and claiming she had previously blamed her own family and advisers for mismanaging her wealth. His conviction is currently under appeal before Spain's Supreme Court.
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