Jelena Dokic reflects on father's death: A complex farewell to a painful past
Jelena Dokic has announced the death of her estranged father and former coach, Damir Dokic, expressing a mix of grief and reflection. Despite a decade-long estrangement due to past abuse, she shared a heartfelt message acknowledging the complexity of losing a parent.
Former world No. 4 Jelena Dokic has publicly acknowledged the passing of her father and coach, Damir Dokic, a figure who played a complex and painful role in her life. In an emotional social media post, Dokic opened up about the nuanced grief of losing a parent she had not spoken to in over a decade. While Jelena’s career once shone under the international spotlight—with a Wimbledon semi-final appearance and a rise into the world’s top five—her personal life was marked by deep trauma. She has long spoken candidly about the years of abuse she suffered from her father, both emotional and physical, detailed in her 2017 autobiography Unbreakable.
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Despite the estrangement, Dokic shared a childhood photo of herself with her father, writing: “As you know, my relationship with my father has been difficult and painful with a lot of history.”
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“Despite everything and no matter how hard, difficult and in the last 10 years even non existent our relationship and communication was, it is never easy losing a parent and a father, even one you are estranged from. The loss of an estranged parent comes with a difficult and complicated grief,” she wrote.
In her message, Dokic made it clear she intends to handle this difficult moment with the values she now lives by—respect, grace, kindness, dignity, and empathy. She requested privacy for herself and her family as they process the loss.
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“And as always and especially important to who I am as a person and what I want to stand for which is respect, grace, kindness, dignity and empathy, I will and want to be that person in this situation too. For now, I will leave it there. It’s an end of a chapter and life as I know it. There are lots of conflicting and complex emotions and feelings for me. For the end of this chapter, I choose to focus on a good memory like this picture.”
Closing her post simply but powerfully, Dokic wrote: “And my final words. RIP.”
Since retiring from tennis in 2014, Dokic has become a respected commentator and mental health advocate. She has openly discussed her struggles, including a near-suicide attempt in 2022, continuing to emphasize the importance of healing and resilience.
Damir Dokic, once known for his volatile presence on the tennis tour, had a controversial past that included a prison sentence in 2009 for threatening to blow up the Australian ambassador to Belgrade. His relationship with Jelena became emblematic of the darker pressures some athletes endure behind the scenes.
