STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Tennis legend Bjorn Borg has revealed significant personal struggles in his autobiography, “Heartbeats: a memoir,” published on Thursday. The 69-year-old icon disclosed his battle with prostate cancer and a past cocaine addiction, admitting he felt “terribly ashamed.”
Tennis icon Bjorn Borg details cocaine use, prostate cancer diagnosis, and past struggles in his new memoir.
Reader question: Did Borg struggle with addiction? In his memoir, the former tennis star candidly discusses battling “his demons” over several years. His first experience with cocaine occurred in the early 1980s at the iconic New York nightclub Studio 54. “The first time I tried cocaine, I felt a rush as strong as what tennis had given me in the past,” Borg wrote.
His most challenging period, he recounts, was in Milan during the early 1990s, when he was married to Italian singer Loredana Berte. “We had bad influences, and…drugs and pills within reach. There, I was plunged into the deepest darkness,” he shared.
A stark moment came in 1996 when Borg collapsed on a bridge in the Netherlands just before an exhibition tournament. Waking up in the hospital, he found his father by his side. “He saeid nothing, it was so embarrassing,” Borg recalled on the interview show Skavlan. “I was terribly ashamed.”
Borg dominated tennis from 1974 to 1983, winning wimbledon five times and the French Open six times before retiring at age 26.
Beyond his personal battles, Borg also revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis in September 2023.”The risk of it coming back still exists, and it’s something I will have to live with for a while, with the anxiety of not knowing… if the cancer was caught in time,” he stated. He requires check-ups every six months to monitor for recurrence.
During his Skavlan appearance, Borg mentioned he exercises daily but admitted he hadn’t played tennis in six years. When asked about doping in the sport, he said, “I know it exists among juniors.” he also commented on Jannik Sinner rehiring his former fitness trainer, Umberto Ferrara, after Ferrara was suspended for an anabolic steroid violation. “He fired one of his trainers, his fitness coach. And than, once everything calmed down, he rehired the same fitness coach. I find that very strange.I don’t know more,” Borg stated.
