![]() ![]() When they did the autopsy they discovered diazepam in his blood. They analysed it and found it was diazepam. 'When I got home I went through the nanny's room and found a broken ampoule of some weird substance which I gave to the police. Two days later he passed away and, you know, you're then in a coma yourself. She moved into my apartment, and exactly eight days later my son was sleeping and I couldn't wake him up. I checked her references, and she sounded perfect and looked lovely. 'Maximilien's father helped me hire the nanny. The nanny, a Bulgarian who began working for Julia just eight days before Maximilien's death in March 2000, 'vanished from this planet' after she was questioned by police. An autopsy also revealed the baby had been drugged with diazepam (Valium). Twenty-three years ago, her four-month-old son, Maximilien, a child from her three-year-relationship with one of France's richest men, Edouard Stern, who was later murdered, died from shaken baby syndrome. You see, Julia knows more than most about the way in which 'a sorrow like no other' can resonate through life. 'The last thing I wanted to do was cook, but Martina loves her food so much,' Julia says.Īnd, always, always, having to 'punch away that fear'. Martina after winning the Womens Singles Final at The Wimbledon Tennis Championship 1986 The heart-breaking telephone call to Julia's children, who regard Martina 'as a parent', and her tears to her mother in Russia when she finally broke down. The messages of good wishes from, well, just about anyone who's ever picked up a tennis racket. The months spent with skincare guru Peter Thomas Roth, who is like a brother to Julia and opened his New York home to Martina as 'a safe place near the hospital, where she could be totally incognito and in her bubble' as she underwent the gruelling treatment. People you love, trust and don't have to explain anything to'. There was the 'wonderful' supper with a Russian-Portuguese couple who are 'like family to us. Also, I couldn't go to her, comfort her and say, 'It's going to be OK, darling', because you just don't know.' 'You want to shut down, but I couldn't shut down for Martina's sake. 'We didn't know how big it was, what stage it was or even where it was,' says Julia. The primary tumour could have been goodness knows where - her brain, her lung, her liver, her pancreas. There was the 'most horrible, horrible weekend' that followed as they waited to find out where the cancer had spread. Those three months of 'todays', since that phone call on a Friday in December telling Martina cancer had been detected in her lymph node have been tough times, but treasured, too. Julia is a former Miss USSR and Miss Universe whose face was her passport from the country she was desperate to leave for as long as she can remember 'Like I said, I'm not going to lose Martina, but whatever time I have left with her I will live to the fullest. I changed my behaviour by living in the present. 'I couldn't panic about what might happen tomorrow or what had happened yesterday. 'But I wanted Martina - I wanted everything - to be like it was before all this happened, so I knew that we had this big journey ahead of us. Taking feathers out would be, for me, panicking. 'That's how I felt when I thought about Martina. 'I have a big cockatoo called Jacques, who, when he's distressed, takes his feathers out,' she says. Julia, 50, who married Martina in 2014 and refuses to contemplate a life without the tennis legend, struggles to find the words to articulate her relief. Indeed, such is this 59 times Grand Slam winner's gutsy determination, that last week she was back commentating at the Miami Open. Thankfully, after several months of brutal chemotherapy and radiation Martina, 66, is in remission. I said it was like I was being strangled. 'I remember Mary once asked me how I was feeling. 'You feel you have no air when those thoughts come into your mind. So, no, I never imagined losing her - that thought is too terrifying - but even so, there's somewhere in your stomach where it squeezes. ![]() 'I never saw Martina going down without a battle and where there's a battle there is hope for a win. I literally forgot to breathe I was so scared. I was saying: 'Listen, we'll deal with this.' She said: 'Julia, you're squeezing me too hard.' It was because I was cramping. 'I knew my eyes were getting wet, but she didn't see my tears. She was like 'Why is this happening to me?' and crying. 'I'd just come home and was getting out of the car when Martina came out of the house to tell me ,' says Julia. ![]()
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