Third ranked women’s tennis player, Jessica Pegula, is known for her prowess on the court. However, the American, 29, is also known for being the ‘richest tennis player in the world’.
Her success on the court has certainly contributed to her eye-watering wealth, but it’s her interesting family background that has her soaring over other wealthy tennis greats such as Roger Federer and Serena Williams.
You see, Pegula is an heiress to her parents’ wealth, which is estimated at a staggering $6.7 billion (approximately AUD $10 billion).
Here, we break down everything you need to know about this billionaire tennis player.
How Old Is Jessica Pegula?
Jessica Pegula was born on February 24, 1994. This means she is now aged 29 and is also a Pisces in astrology.
What Is Jessica Pegula’s Net Worth?
While Pegula has pulled in a lot of money from tennis competitions (some sporting websites such as Sportskeeda estimate she’s earned as much as USD $10 million, approximately AUD $15 million), it’s actually her family wealth people are referring to when they call her a billionaire.
According to 9 Honey, her parents’ business is worth over USD $6.7 billion (approximately AUD $10 billion), making her tennis millions just a drop in the ocean in comparison. While Pegula has largely avoided talking about her inordinate wealth, she did bring it up in an interview at Wimbledon.
“People say that [I’m a billionaire]. I personally don’t have that money. It’s probably my dad’s or my parents’. My family obviously is pretty well-known back in America,” he explained.
She said the public interest in her family’s wealth “is what it is”, and that she tries not to care about what people say. “It doesn’t really matter how much money you have,” she said. Spoken like a true billionaire.
However, she did make a joke indicating that she would rather be known for her skills on the court than her family money. “It would be great to win Wimbledon because then I would also have a lot of money from winning Wimbledon,” she laughed.
Is Jessica Pegula A Billionaire?
As Pegula said herself, the family money isn’t hers – at least not yet. Pegula is one of five siblings, Kelly, Matthew, Michael and Laura (the latter two from her father’s first marriage), so in all likelihood, she may not be the sole inheritor.
Who Are Jessica Pegula’s Family?
Jessica Pegula was born in Buffalo, New York, to Terry and Kim Pegula. It was Terry’s second marriage, his first had been to a woman named Anne Shirley, by which he had two children, Michael and Laura.
Terry married Kim, in 1993 and she went on to have three children with him, Jessica, Kelly and Matthew.
Terry was born in Pennsylvania and attended school, then university, getting a degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. He worked in oil before starting his own natural gas drilling company, East Resources, in 1983. The business specialised in newly engineered ‘hydraulic fracturing’ or ‘fracking’. This saw profits surge, with the couple eventually selling the business for billions, according to Forbes.
In 2011, Terry and Kim purchased sporting teams including the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabres and the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills. He also has interests in real estate, having purchased waterfront property in Buffalo and even entertainment, with a share in country music label Black River Entertainment.
While it’s been a meteoric rise for Terry, so has it also been for Kim. She was born in Seoul in South Korea with no record of her name or her biological parents. She was abandoned as a child and brought to the United States for adoption, growing up in Rochester, per Democrat & Chronicle. Years later, she was working at a restaurant in New York when Terry came in as a diner. She started working for him at his company and eventually they started dating, reports The Sun.
She worked at Terry’s oil business until its sale in 2010 and then went on to manage a lot of the work with the sporting enterprises. In June 2022, Kim was hospitalized and on February 7, 2023, Jessica Pegula admitted that her mother had gone into cardiac arrest, resulting in a brain injury due to lack of oxygen, per ESPN. It is unknown how well Kim will recuperate, although she was seen at a Buffalo Bill’s training practice in July 2023.
Is Jessica Pegula Adopted?
Jessica Pegula is not adopted. She is the biological child of her parents, Terry and Kim Pegula. However, her mother Kim was adopted.
According to the Democrat & Chronicle, Pegula was left on a street corner in front of a police station in South Korea, a move that made police think her parents just didn’t have the means to look after her. She placed in an orphanage as a child but has no recollection of these events.
“I don’t have any bad memories, nothing traumatic at all that I can think of. I just know somebody with the agency flew with me, and my parents picked me up at JFK, and that was the beginning of my life, really,” she said during an interview.
Who Is Jessica Pegula Married To?
Jessica Pegula is married to Taylor Gahagen, an American senior investment analyst who worked at her parents’ company Pegula Sports and Entertainment.
The businessman worked his way up through the ranks, eventually looking after the marketing processes for their hockey team, the Buffalo Sabers.
He started dating Jessica in 2015, though little is known about how they met or decided to pursue a romantic connection.
The pair officially tied the knot in October 2021, bringing their shared love of dogs and animal welfare into the ceremony. It was hosted at Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and was attended by select friends and family, in an intimate, private event.
What Is Jessica Pegula’s Ranking?
Jessica Pegula is currently ranked 3rd in the world in women’s tennis. The American came first in the 2020 Australian Open and the French Open. She took out number two at Wimbledon in 2021 and in 2023 she became the world number 2 in doubles.
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