Biography

Billie Jean King was born Billie Jean Moffitt on November 22, 1943 in Long Beach, California. King began playing tennis at the age of 11 and immediately fell in love with the sport. She played on public tennis courts and bought her racquet with money she earned from odd jobs. She soon told her mother, “I am going to be No. 1 in the world.”

King won her first major singles title at Wimbledon in 1966, a feat she repeated in 1967 and 1968. In 1966, she achieved her childhood dream when she became the #1-ranked women’s tennis player in the world. She claimed that title five more times in her career: 1967, 1968, 1971, 1972, and 1974. Between 1961-1979, playing both singles and doubles, King won Wimbledon a record 20 times and claimed 13 U.S. titles, four French titles, and two Australian titles. In 1972, she won the U.S. Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon – three Grand Slam victories in one year. King was named Sports Illustrated’s 1972 Sportsperson of the Year, the first woman and first tennis player ever to earn the title.

King was at the top of the women’s tennis game, but the prize money for women’s tennis was a fraction of that for men’s tennis at the time. King became a vocal advocate for equal prize money.  In 1971, King became the first female athlete to earn over $100,000 in a single season. King persuaded her fellow players to form a union, the Women’s Tennis Association, and served as its first president in 1973.

In 1973, King’s campaign for gender equality in sports received global attention when she took part in the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match against Bobby Riggs, a former professional tennis player and self-proclaimed male chauvinist. Riggs was determined to prove that women’s tennis was inferior to men’s tennis. Amid the match’s circus-like atmosphere, King defeated Riggs in straight sets while over 90 million people watched across the world.

King was publicly outed as a lesbian in 1981 and immediately lost all her endorsement deals. After the news broke, her representatives urged her not to confirm it, but King refused to deny her lesbianism. She and her husband divorced in 1987, but remained friendly. King then began a relationship with her current partner, Illana Kloss, a fellow professional tennis player. She retired from competition in 1983. In 2009, President Barack Obama presented King with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for championing the rights of women and the LGBTQ community. King was the first female athlete to receive the award. King’s legacy of achievement and advocacy continues to inspire female and LGBTQ athletes around the world.

“Billie Jean King.” National Women’s History Museum, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/billie-jean-king. Accessed 7 Mar. 2024.