Elina Svitolina and Gaël Monfils made a heartbreaking announcement about their marriage.

After five years of marriage, the couple shared in a joint statement in an Oct. 19 Instagram post that they will be parting ways. Svitolina began the message about the former French tennis star, writing, “This is the most difficult thing I have ever had to share.”

Svitolina shared a black-and-white photo of herself hugging Monfils as she spoke about her home country of Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia.

“Everyone knows how much Ukraine means to me. What I have rarely spoken about is what the war has done to me inside,” she writes. “Last year, I told you I needed to step away from the court because I wasn’t in the right emotional space. Today, I want to open up a little more. What you didn’t see were the sleepless nights, the doubts, and the feeling of slowly losing myself.”

She praised Monfils for supporting her through this difficult time.

“Gaël saw all of it. He never let go of my hand,” she continued. “We fought through this together for a long time, with everything we had. But some battles happen deep inside you, and no amount of love from someone else can win them for you.”

Svitolina then expressed how she “needs to find my way back to myself and that I cannot do that within our marriage” which has been the “the hardest truth I have ever had to face and the hardest thing I have ever had to tell the person I love.”

She says that he listened and respected her decision with “strength and grace I will never forget.”

While the two will no longer be a couple, Svitolina emphasized that their daughter Skai will always come first.”

“We will always be her parents, side by side, at every step of her life.”

Svitolina concluded the messaging asking for “kindness and for the space we need to heal.”

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Monfils proposed in April 2021 and got married in Geneva, Switzerland, in July 2021. They welcomed their daughter Skai in October 2022. The couple shared their love for tennis and competed at the Paris Olympics in 2024 for their respective countries. The two would later come together at the 2026 US Open, competing in the mixed doubles and reaching the semifinals.

At this time, Monfils has not spoken out about the split.