Andy and Kim Murray at the entrance to Cromlix The Murrays outside their hotel, Cromlix
Murray is well aware that the wives of famous men, particularly in the world of sport, are often the object of not-entirely-edifying fascination. The first year of her relationship with Andy coincided with the 2006 football World Cup in Germany during which the WAGS (wives and girlfriends) of the English football team – it was the boorish era of Rooney, Beckham, Lampard and Terry – willingly established themselves as a pouty, spray-tanned tabloid phenomenon at the team’s base in Baden Baden.
Stories abounded of £57,000 shopping binges, epic champagne-drinking sessions and Victoria Beckham’s alleged 60-strong sunglasses collection. |In contrast, on the tennis circuit, Murray kept a discreet, largely inscrutable presence; the press unable to find much to say about her beyond speculating on the cost of the highlights in her hair (even though, at the time, she didn’t have any).
“There is definitely a weird fixation with famous wives,” she says now. “I always found the WAG thing quite gross and wasn’t really willing to engage with it. These days, because of instagram and social media, some women can now even build a career out of that sort of thing in a way that wasn’t possible before, but I still don’t think I would ever do that. I’ve never felt being the girlfriend or wife of a famous sportsman to be particularly noteworthy.”
Instead, she has quietly got on with creating a life behind the scenes. “I put everything into our relationship and marriage. I’m a homemaker and that’s what I wanted. But I also knew there would come a time for me to do my thing. I don’t think I’ve put anything on hold while Andy has had his career, I’ve always been doing things in the background, I just haven’t felt the need to speak about them.”
Murray grew up in East Sussex in a tennis family. Her father is the tennis coach and former player Nigel Sears and her brother was a professional tennis player. Her mother worked for Cambridge University Press. A talented artist, Kim hoped at one point to attend drama school. But she was never particularly career-oriented.
