"My crime is stupidity, naivete, for that I have to pay" - When Martina Navratilova called ex-lover Judy Nelson a gold digger after palimony lawsuit

When Martina Navratilova broke up with Judy Nelson, she was hit with a palimony lawsuit, leading her to suggest that her ex-lover was a gold digger.

Nelson met Navratilova in 1982 during the Bridgestone World Doubles tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. It was Nelson's eldest son, Eddie, who was a ball boy at the event, who introduced Navratilova to his mother, who was a tournament volunteer.

Navratilova and Nelson exchanged addresses and kept in touch for the next two years. In March 1994, the former World No. 1 returned to Texas for an event but could not compete after pulling a hamstring muscle during practice.

At this point, Nelson and her husband invited Navratilova to recuperate in their home, which was when the romance blossomed. Their first public appearance came at the French Open in 1984 and later at the Wimbledon Championships.

The two, however, broke up a couple of years later, after which Navratilova was hit with a palimony suit. The Czech-born American was not happy with it, especially since it happened just before the 1991 Wimbledon Championships.

Navratilova said that she was paying the price for being naive and painted Nelson as a gold digger.

"They tell you they love you and, on the other hand, they want to get as much money as possible. My crime here is stupidity, naivete, and not loving Judy anymore. For that I have to pay," she had then said. (via Washington Post)

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Martina Navratilova and Judy Nelson eventually settled the palimony lawsuit out of court

Martina Navratilova is an 18-time Grand Slam champion.

The palimony lawsuit between Martina Navratilova and Judy Nelson was settled out of court after the two came to an amicable split. It was settled in March 1992, with Rita Mae Brown, an American feminist writer who dated Navratilova before later getting into a relationship with Nelson.

Various reports from that year state that Nelson received a $1.1 million house in Aspen and between $3 million and $4 million in cash from the split.

Incidentally, Nelson isn't the only ex-love that Navratilova was forced to make a financial settlement with. She is said to have settled with another ex-lover, Toni Layton, for an estimated $3 million after a bitter two-year legal battle.

In her lawsuit, Layton claimed that the 18-time Grand Slam champion abruptly ended their eight-year relationship and changed the locks on their Florida home without any intimation.

Layton later suggested that Navratilova had a lot of secrets and that she was privy to all of them.

“There are a lot of skeletons in Martina’s closet. It is more like a storage facility full of them, and I know them all,” she told Page Six.