Jelena Dokic has shared her abusive father’s shocking response after she attempted to reconcile with him.
The former tennis champion, 42, suffered years of horrific abuse at the hands of her dad Damir, who died in May, aged 67.
Jelena revealed on the ABC’s Australian Story that he showed no remorse over the abuse, and refused attempts at reconciliation.
Speaking with host Leigh Sales, Jelena admitted she felt as if Damir had never loved her – a question she asked herself in her candid biography Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story.
‘I’ve come to accept that he doesn’t love me and he never did,’ she said.
‘I’m a firm believer that you can’t do that to someone if you love them.’
Jelena Dokic has shared her abusive father’s shocking response after she attempted to reconcile with him Â
Jelena added that she attempted to reconcile with Damir after leaving home at age 19.Â
However, those attempts fell on deaf ears.
‘I tried to reconcile with my father two or three times a couple of years after I left home,’ Jelena explained.Â
‘I thought: “look I’m older now maybe he’s changed. We don’t even have to talk about tennis – it can just be a father and daughter relationship.” What you always kind of hope for.’
Continuing, Jelena revealed that Damir had shown ‘no remorse’ over his actions.
‘I tried. It wasn’t possible,’ she said. ‘It’s hard when someone’s not even a little bit sorry or has any remorse. Â
‘In fact, he said he would do it all again.’Â Â
She added: ‘It was hard for me at the time but I had to make a choice at one stage and go this is extremely toxic. It’s just not healthyÂ
The former tennis champion, 42, suffered years of horrific abuse at the hands of her dad Damir, who died in May, aged 67Â
Jelena revealed on the ABC’s Australian Story that he showed no remorse over the abuse, and refused attempts at reconciliationÂ
‘He never picked up the phone to call me; he never wanted to see me. I just made a cut, and we were estranged for ten years. He passed away a few months ago, and it just had to be that way.’
Speaking on the Mental As Anyone Podcast back in May, Jelena admitted that while she was unable to forgive her father, she could not bring herself to hate him.Â
‘People say you have to forgive, not for your abuser or someone that caused you pain, but for yourself,’ she said.
‘But I’m not sure I agree with that because I don’t necessarily have to forgive him to be able to move on.
‘You have to accept the circumstances. Accepting that was my life, the cards I’d been dealt, that’s fine, but I don’t hate him. Maybe that sounds weird, but I also don’t forgive him.’
Also on the podcast, Jelena recounted details of the abuse she suffered which reached a point where she was afraid he would kill her.
‘I did leave home at the age of 19, escaped during a tennis tournament because the beatings were getting so violent and I didn’t know if I was going to survive the next one,’ she said.
‘A lot of that pressure and abuse continued,’ she added.
‘I tried. It wasn’t possible,’ she said. ‘It’s hard when someone’s not even a little bit sorry or has any remorse. ‘In fact, he said he would do it all again’
She added: ‘It was hard for me at the time but I had to make a choice at one stage and go this is extremely toxic. It’s just not healthy
‘My father continued to make my life very difficult, but it was more the fact that the trauma and my mental health really took a turn, and at the age of 22, in 2005, I almost took my own life.
‘I didn’t know it at the time but I was battling anxiety, depression, PTSD, even an eating disorder which continued, even though I continued playing on the tour.’
Jelena detailed the harrowing physical and mental abuse she suffered at the hands of her father in her 2017 autobiography Unbreakable.
The book was subsequently adapted into a documentary, Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, which was released in cinemas in 2024.
The documentary also aired on Channel Nine in January 2025.
Following its small screen airing, social media lit up with messages of support for the former world number four, who confirmed she was once knocked unconscious by her father following an on-court defeat.
AFL legend Brendan Fevola labelled Dokic’s story ‘horrific’, while former Uzbekistan tennis star Denis Istomin declared she had the potential to be as good as tennis great Serena Williams.
Other tennis fans praised Dokic for her strength and resilience, with another supporter stating his belief that she would have ‘won multiple grand slam titles’ if she ‘had normal people around her’.
Jelena’s tennis career peaked when she made the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1999 and semi-finals in 2000, followed by the 2002 French Open quarter-finals.
