The announcement

Elina Svitolina, a 32-year-old Ukrainian player ranked sixth by the WTA according to Telegraaf and Polsat Sport (seventh according to watson), announced on Instagram on Monday, 19 October 2026, that her marriage to Gaël Monfils is ending. The couple had been married for five years and share a daughter. In the post she framed the split as a decision without a guilty party and said the two would keep raising their child together. Monfils had shared her statement, but he had not yet spoken about it personally when the reports were published. The sentence at the centre of the post reads as follows:

“Our marriage is ending, but our family is not.”

War and a personal reckoning

Svitolina wrote that the war in Ukraine had affected her far more deeply than she had ever described publicly. She said she had stepped away from tennis in 2025 because she was not in the right emotional state, and she spoke of sleepless nights, doubts and a fear of losing herself. She credited Monfils with standing by her throughout, saying he never let go of her hand. In her account, some battles are fought inside a person, and even a partner's deepest love cannot win them. She concluded that she had to find her way back to herself and could not do that inside the marriage, and she said Monfils listened and respected what she needed. On fault, she was direct:

“There is no one to blame. There are only two people who loved each other deeply, and a story that is changing shape.”

Monfils's retirement and the calendar

Monfils, 40, ended his career abruptly on 5 October. According to a report from L'Equipe, the split was the reason behind that decision. Before retiring he had hoped to bow out at the Masters 1000 event in Paris, held at La Défense from 31 October to 8 November, and he had received a wild card for the ATP 250 tournament in Lyon, scheduled for 18 to 25 October. Reports had already described his exit as driven by a personal reason, and Svitolina's post now makes the couple's split public. Earlier, the pair had been seen together at Simona Halep's retirement match in Cluj in summer 2025. At the 2026 US Open they reached the mixed doubles semi-final together, according to Polsat Sport.

Their daughter and what comes next

The couple's daughter, born in October 2022, turned four in the week before the announcement, according to watson. Svitolina wrote that the girl would always come first and that her parents would remain side by side at every stage of her life. Telegraaf noted that Svitolina was born in Odesa, while Monfils is French. Monfils had passed on his wife's message without adding a personal comment, according to watson. Svitolina closed her post by asking for understanding and for the space both of them need to recover.