ARANTXA SÁNCHEZ-VICARIO, the former women’s world number one, has claimed she has been left struggling to pay her debts after accusing her parents of taking her €45 million fortune.
The Spaniard, who won three French Open titles and one US Open, claims in her new memoir Arantxa, Vamos! Memoirs of a Struggle, a Life and a Woman, that her parents made her "suffer a lot".
In quotes reported by the Spanish magazine La Otra Cronica, she writes: "A simple estimate, based on everything I've earned . . . would reach about €45 million. My parents left me with nothing and now I am indebted to the and I will not be quiet. My mother decided on my hair, my clothes . . . When I bought something on my own, she rarely liked it. Today, I am without resources."
The current Spanish Fed Cup captain also wrote in the book, as reported by El País: “My properties are worth a lot less than those of my brother Javier, who has earned a lot less than me . . . I never questioned the way my father managed my money. I have been a victim, I was duped.”
However, her mother attacked her daughter’s claims, saying Sánchez-Vicario “had gone a step further in her desire to hurt us and humiliate us”.
Talking to El Mundo, Marisa Vicario Rubio said: "As we read the article that was published we sank deeper and deeper into despair, not because of all the lies in it, which came one after another, but more because we realised the actual state of our daughter. For 20 years, we put everything aside and forfeited our lives and our marriage for her career. I personally escorted her from a very young age to every tournament, leaving my husband and my other children behind.
“Then my husband Emilio quit his job to accompany her and help her. We tried to do the best we could. Clearly we failed her . . . we are accused of leaving her in ruins with the type of a grudge and resentment worthy of your worst enemy.”
Her parents’ lawyer said: “They are not considering legal action. What they are going to do is weigh up all the elements to see how they are affected and how they can answer such serious accusations which she is apparently making.”
