When a teenage Bec Hewitt met her now husband of 19 years, Lleyton Hewitt, at a charity tennis tournament in 1999, she didn’t think much of it.
In fact they didn’t meet or speak to each other again for another six years.
“I couldn’t play tennis, so it was quite comical,” she told Stellar Magazine. “I didn’t impress him with my game. He just thought it was really admirable that I gave it a go.”
At the time they were both in relationships, but eventually, when they were both single, things fell into place.
What began with a text message on Lleyton’s part, ended with a proposal after just six weeks of dating, followed by a pregnancy announcement, their wedding and the arrival of their first child less than a year later.
Looking back, she calls their romance a “whirlwind” and her description definitely feels apt.
“We caught up and that was it. It was such a whirlwind, which I think was part of the reason why we ended up with such a lot of attention — because it was after only six weeks that we got engaged,” she said.
“It was only when both of our relationships had broken up he eventually touched base in a text message to tell me something he was working on.”
Despite this, over the years, both Bec and Lleyton have had to field countless salacious rumours about apparent ‘marriage breakdowns’, something the 35-year-old said dramatises their “routine” reality of being working parents to three children, aged from 12 to seven.
“We have a good little routine going,” she said.
“When Lleyton comes back [commitments to his Bahamas-based tennis academy and role as the Davis Cup captain require him to travel frequently], it just lightens the load.
“He really likes to help and every morning he’s like, ‘No, no, you’ve done the school run for the last three weeks, so let me do it.’”
Although they spent years living in the Bahamas – for Lleyton’s work – the family of five now live in Australia, complete with “a little fluffy Cavoodle” Bux. They moved back in April 2017, and share daughter Mia, 18, son Cruz, 15, and daughter Ava, 13.
Family life aside, Bec has also taken this opportunity to make a return to her television career. In 2018 she was a presenter on Channel 9’s travel show Hello World, 13 years after leaving her role as Hayley Smith Lawson on Home and Away.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph in June that, she said it was the right time for the change.
“I think it’s the right time and the right job just to fit in with my other job of being a mum”, she said.
“For a long time, it was all about being Mia’s mum or whoever, and you do lose your identity a bit. But that’s also been beautiful and sweet.”
Most recently the pair were seen sitting very closely to the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, at a 2024 Wimbledon match.
The pair looked relaxed, with Lleyton in blue suit and Bec in a black blazer and shades. They were also surrounded by Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as tennis greats Debbie Jevans and Chris Vert, Cumberbatch’s wife Sophie Hunter.
This article was originally published in September 2018 and has since been updated with new information.
Feature image: Getty.
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Top Comments
I don't remember a single thing about Bec and Lleyton's wedding, apart from that poem she wrote about their relationship and read out at the reception. It ended with "stick with me and you'll have a bloody good life" and it's the only thing I can think of when I read anything about them.
Oh yeah, that cringey poem! Didn't it also allude to them conceiving a kid at the Four Seasons? Tacky product placement - gloriously bogan touch there!
Yes! I've just Googled it and the exact line (or couplet - we're talking about serious poetry here) was "I admire you for so many reasons/I mean, look at what happened at the Four Seasons!"
Amazing.
Let's all be grateful she didn't describe those reasons in inches. Personally that's a mental image I could do without. ;)
So much second-hand embarrassment for them.
6 weeks is very quick, especially when so young, but it seems to have worked for them. Meanwhile, 7 years living in the Bahamas? Sign me up!
Like most of our Aussie tennis players and golfers, they were living in the Bahamas to avoid paying tax and contributing to their/our society (e.g. Pat Rafter in Bermuda).