So why does servers come up to your table and say, have you dined with us before? When that happens, I start to sweat, I get the hives, and if I'm with someone who doesn't know the code, which is that no matter where you are, if you are an Ethiopian, Mexican and Marguerita Parler, you still say yes. Why? Because they're going to go through a whole litany of, OK, so the items on the top, those are smaller portions.

You can dig the items over there that are on the second part that are a little more expensive. Those are for sharing and these are the light bites. So I'm like, let me fucking guess. There's a man in a white jacket and a hat with his presumably clogs and his name on is on his jacket. And he's going to create whatever we we order from the scrawl on this piece of paper. And we figure if it's priceless and if it's at the top, it's an appetizer.

And if it's a dance down in the middle and it's it's sixty eight dollars for a steak, you're slicing it up. Or if it says like serves to two to four people, if I don't want that five minutes of my life back, I don't know why that bothers you so much. So when someone says to you, have you done this before, you say yes, you're going to fucking figure it out. I promise you're just going to you're that smart.

Yeah, I didn't go to Harvard, but you will figure out what they're talking about, and I don't know why that bothers me. OK, also, I don't like the water preference question. Hi. What's your water preference? Wet. What if I'm taking clients out now? I'm cheap because I don't order like the fancy water. I don't ever want to fucking spend twelve dollars on a bottle of water. I would rather drink water out of a toilet bowl.

OK, I have bags that are thousands of dollars. I will not pay for water. I've survived this long. OK, I, I don't know the goddamn difference. I do not know the difference to any water. I hate what I don't have any water surface water. I do not care if it comes out of a Mexican toilet bowl just if it's wet and it's clear. George Carlin did a bit on it a long time ago about like now drinking water, like we've just hit the face of the sun water.

We have our own water bottles and personal water supply. And I just the whole water thing. And I will not I swear to God, I had a crew come here to shoot something that we're doing, like a skinny girl apparel shoot. And they brought like they always bring like a case of like Poland Spring Water or something. And I assume it's like a dollar. And if for some reason I'm having people over or if I have that bottled water, it's the cheapest one.

And when I have a big case of water and like I said, I have some expensive items, I have jewelry, if it's like that. Twenty four bottles of water in my house, I feel like rich, like this is what rich people do, like have like cases of water. I'm not that person. I'm not even the person who has like that big guzzling like Poland Spring thing. And I also I feel rich if somebody has a water dispenser on the front of the refrigerator, it's just like, wow, you're like ice and water like that makes me feel rich.

And someone comes over. I'm like, do you have a bottle of water once you go fuck yourself, what do I look like? Somebody was on the cover of Forbes. I actually was. And that's the problem. That's why they ask me. I'm like, no. And then I'm like, listen, go get a glass and go get some ice and some water. That's like a tap because I'm like, am I giving anybody any bottled water?

If it's here, it's here for company. I don't know. Not like like like sea level friends are like not with the president's coming over, I'll get I'll give the president. Well know that depends on what president. But anyway, I digress. If if if Francois Mitterrand is coming to my house, I'm going to give him a bottle of water and then I'll be Poland Spring and it won't be Evian and they'll be wrong because not French. And that'll be a whole other problem.

But I have a problem with water. So when my crew came to do my photo shoot for my clothing, I took three or four bottles out of their case because it's cruel. I mean, it's like and put it in my fridge because I was like, oh my God, there are certain things I'm cheap about if I like sweetener. I would sooner buy. A two thousand dollar jacket that I would pay for sweetener, I'm born to be an old person like sweetners.

What you like taking putting your purse on your Starbucks or buy a box of sweetener? It's a fucking suckers. What do you think I am? It's everywhere. I wouldn't buy sweetener. That's just one of the weird things. I don't believe we should. I don't think we should have to pay for tampons. Tampons should be government issue. They're just absolutely too expensive and it can be like seven to twelve dollars for a box. So I didn't like my vagina like did this itself.

I didn't, I didn't ask for this. I didn't order the vagina bleeding program. So why am I paying for it. Oh my God. Could you imagine what we like to go through? Life is made. Could you even fucking imagine? Well, here we are. My guest today is Maria Sharapova. She just got engaged to someone that I know, she is so kind, so sweet, so chic, so interesting. She is obviously known for her incredible career as a professional tennis player, having won five grand slams and many other opens and tournaments over the years.

She's also an entrepreneur and she has her own brand of candy called Sugar Pevar, which she launched in 2012 and has been building ever since. So wonderful person. She's got insight. She's got a sense of humor. She's stunning. Her boyfriend's hot. They're like living a fabulous life. She's into design. She's just sort of like that person. That's kind of perfect. Sort of like Nicky Hilton, who is a friend of mine, Nicky Rothschild, who just like always looks perfect and it's annoying, you know what I mean?

Like every picture, she looks like a floral goddess. And this one just looks like she she looks like money. OK, you know, there's a movie called Swingers years ago. You some money. You don't even know it. Maria Sharapova is so money and she doesn't even know it. OK, so humble and comes from humble beginnings. And I currently have a hideous sweatshirt on and look like I was hit by a train. You are going to love this one.

Let's get into it with Maria.

Hi Bethany.

Hi. How are you. Thank you for having me. Well, thank you. I appreciate you being here. You're the only person I've had on who have actually looked at their Instagram on the day. I don't know why. I just wanted to look at your Instagram and I saw that. Are you in New York now?

I am in New York. I'm sure you saw a lot of eating, working out and architectural photos.

So you take design and photography and art very seriously. Isn't that true? I do. I've ever since I was very young, I was attracted to beautiful quality images, architecture, buildings, design, how one would dress, how they would. I was very interested in individualism. So how people presented themselves, how they presented their work. I would get from Gary many years ago when we were working on a pair of earrings together, when I was working with Tiffany at the time, and I sat in his office and I had been an admirer of his for years.

And I traveled the world and I would take photos of it was my way of capturing my travels. I would take photos of his buildings and I would send them as little postcards back to my mom when she was living in Florida at the time. And then I got to meet him. And it was like everything that I had seen from Czech Republic to Russia to everything that he's done in Spain, in America. And he was like sitting at the table and this waiting room doodling.

And he would doodle this like a caricature, which you're like, what? What are you doing? What is this? And then you realize that that's his artistic process. Like, he creates something very complex and complicated. It's a figure. And then in three, four or five years time, there is a building that's his idea came into life.

And that's how I've I've always loved to get to the bottom of people and their ideas and how they really present themselves. And that's why I do like clothes and I like this element of photography. And as you say with this podcast, you you essentially want to you want to learn more about the individual that you're speaking to. Right. So the aesthetic of how they live and how they dress and and how they speak is really is part of that. It's this art of unveiling who they truly are.

So is this going to be part of your business life or is this more of just your personal life, the evolution of you as a human being, getting to be more of your authentic self because you're not defined by being on a court and being a champion and beating someone?

Yeah, that's a fair point, because I was I think as especially as a female, you're always put into certain buckets in your life from what the exterior world, from what this outside perception is. And I've always I've always felt that I not that I just wanted to be more than just a tennis player and only to lift trophies. I felt like there were different interests that I I appreciated art. And when I would post something about art, slightly confused.

And then I got into business and I started my own candy company. And then people question, well, how how does business relate? And then as you start going in depth and in the territory of a of someone that's been in sport for years, you start understanding that there are so many different angles and things that you learn along the way, such as business, such as creating your own individual form your personality through these years of training, competing, presenting yourself in press conferences.

And I guess all that. All that is to say that I definitely developed a certain aesthetic and I appreciate beautiful things in life that are made with quality, that are elegant, that are really timeless and that. That goes through anything from when I'm designing a package and sugar prova to when I'm looking for a home or when I'm redesigning something to a collection, I'm working on interior design. I think all those elements apply because I really do believe in timelessness.

So you have extended from Candy into other categories. You're you're building a brand with the same name or it's your name. How are you approaching where you go next in business?

So I retired back in February and that's that's very recent for a pandemic.

That's so poetic in a weird way. Crazy timing.

Yeah, well, I made the decision in January and I believe it was announced and in February, from what I remember and you know, obviously life isn't what I had pictured it to be in this month and what I saw back in February.

And I certainly had I thought of travel. I mean, I've traveled the world for so many years, but I really traveled it from the lens and perspective of an athlete where you train you, you work, you play a match, and then most of your time is spent in the comfort of your hotel room or the stadium court or the locker room. So I don't really get to see the world from the eyes of a true deep tourist traveler perspective.

And I there's I really crave that. And that's been really hard and I think for many people during this time. But from business, I, I form incredible relationships along the way with my career. And I think that's the true that's the true beginning of any project in life, is relationship building is getting to know people. I really expose myself to to different avenues and in meetings in which I wasn't the smartest person in the room. And I'm still far from it.

But I, I loved asking questions. Like, I grew up being very shy, so I never asked questions. I never wanted to raise my hand. And I would only show because I was so strong in my sport and I really felt like I was improving. But in everything else, I, I was shy, like I never wanted to be first in line to something and I'm not sure why, why that was. I was an only child.

My parents are very protective. But then as I grew up a little bit in my early twenties, I became very curious and I started questioning many things and I asked to attend meetings where maybe I didn't necessarily need to be there, but I wanted to learn along the way. I took a few courses in Harvard Business School in the summer. When I had some time, I would put myself in design meetings in Portland when I was working with Nike on collections, and I just wanted to gather all this information and potentially apply it and different aspects of my of my business career.

So you've been a spokesperson for Major Brands. You just mentioned Tiffany. You mentioned Nike, which I know because I saw it on your Instagram and you were the highest paid female athlete for 11 years in a row. Did people know that? I mean, that's pretty gangster.

I always laugh at these lists and statistics, and although it's special to see your name on the top of something and be a champion of something when it came to a list that would come out on the Internet or on paper, especially about finances, I would immediately send it to my business manager. I'm like, where has this amount gone?

Because I don't know where it is. So I guess it's definitely I think there's a little flaw in that system, because if you really think about it, like who has any idea of how much you are making from I mean, they know the basis of your salary and your some of the prize money that you make. But as far as endorsement deals, equity type deals, no one truly knows how much someone is earning. So I do fair. I will begin by saying that those lists are not always accurate, but I always came from this when I was training and I was very young.

I never thought about money. My family always provided environment, although it wasn't full of rich items and luxuries. They always provided a very comfortable environment for me and safety. And I always felt like that was enough. And I never really knew what more money would bring me because I was never exposed to it and I was comfortable with what I had. So while I was training, I asked my mom, like, what? What would happen if we had more money?

Would we have higher ceilings? Would we have a stronger roof? Like I was comfortable and but little by little, you you do.

I mean, you're slightly naive and you're a little green, but with every prize money check that arrives in your account. You become a little bit more significantly comfortable and you're allowed access to to more things, right? You're all of a sudden you can buy and an overseas business class ticket when you're maybe 18, 19 years old. But I do essentially think that once you build those comforts and you determine what those are, I think that that means different things for many, many different people.

Then what else can money really buy to bring you true value and happiness? And I mean, I hear from everyone. It's not everything. Like, it makes me incredibly happy and secure that I can provide for my entire family and that I know my grandparents back in Russia are safe and sound and they're getting older and I can provide health care for them. And I don't have to worry for a second. Now, would that be a major concern if I wasn't in this financial security?

Absolutely. So that is a piece of happiness that I carry and that I value. And I know that the financial gain really helps with.

So you've had a lucrative business of being the face of other brands, and I'm sort of jealous in that way because I would never be able to have like a big massive multimillion dollar contract. So I started the business businesses from scratch, but it's equally, if not more lucrative, and then you spend less time to be the face of different brands. So has this been a great model for you?

Well, there's two ways to look at that. One comes from when you're younger and you need that financial security. It's a obviously a great way for at the end of the year to receive a solid check. On the other hand, once you build the confidence within your portfolio and understand that you have financial security in order to take a little bit more risk, you then go into avenues that are a little bit more equity based. It's been an amazing journey being an ambassador of brands.

But I also wanted to have for me was a sense of I want to be the decision maker. I want to make the end of the day. I don't just want to be one percent or five percent of a company. I don't just want to be the face of I really want to take responsibility and what I was doing and I want to create my own team like I did in my sport. And I want to dedicate my knowledge and the things that I knew.

And at the time, I was still young and green and and I'm learning on the job. And that's when I started Sugar Program. And it's funny because people, you know, they they say, well, Candy, you're you're an athlete. How do those two go together? And that was essentially my point is that if there's anyone that knows how to take care of their body every single day to and from when you wake up and hydrate and drink water, to when you're going to sleep and making sure you get at least eight hours or however however much your body needs, I also knew that there was a time for indulgence and for treating yourself and for rewarding yourself.

And that, for me, started a very young age. And whether that's in your case, a cocktail, for me it was a candy, a chocolate bar. I would finish practice when I was young and I said, Dad, can I have a bounty bar? So that memory came to me and I said, you know, what I want to apply. Started doing market research on gummies, started doing research on ingredients, packaging, logos, names, and that's how sugar was born.

Well, that's amazing because for people at home, I have a brand called Skinny Girl, and the premise is to know how to indulge. People think that it means to deprive and people don't learn enough. How to indulge doesn't mean bingeing. It doesn't mean having a bad relationship with food. It means learning how to allow it. Christmas time is going to be a big container of caramel popcorn and cheese popcorn and there's going to be a brownie and. So if people have a very anxiety ridden I call it food noise, then they feel like they have to binge totally.

And then tomorrow they're going to be good. Where there's no good, there's no bad food is not your best friend or your enemy. It is just something that you should have a good relationship with when you're constantly saying no to yourself.

Like if you see something that you either want to be a part of, if you have a drink in front of you or a chocolate that you want to have and every single day you're saying, no, no, no. You spent so much energy saying no to yourself and your body that you're wasting more energy on that than actually giving yourself an occasional the comfort of saying, OK, well, it's five o'clock, one hundred one hundred percent.

There are days of the week. You just want to eat chocolate cake for breakfast. And that's that's not done. Exactly.

So, you know, you're a beautiful woman and you have always been thought of as an athlete. First, I want to ask, being a woman in tennis, are there positives to being a woman in tennis? Has it been something where people don't take you seriously because you're beautiful? Or is it something where I just want to know about the relationship to your femininity and your physical appearance and the industry?

That's a really great question, because I never felt more comfortable when it was sweat and tears in the third hour of a match in the finals of a grand slam and. I couldn't care less how my hair looked if my skin was glowing, how my pigmentation was, I put all of that aside because what truly mattered was and what I love bringing out and what I really genuinely believed was beautiful was showcasing strength from within. And that was my platform for I.

I played tennis for twenty eight years of my life. And that to me was the definition of beauty. I was always mentally tough in that. Besides having some potential in the sport, I think that's what got me through and brought me championships and the Grand Slams that I won. I had to truly develop my talent and I did. And that was by working hard and having this horse blind. Her attitude on where I just saw straight, I had a mission, I was on a mission and I just wanted to perform.

And that that always I always felt the proudest when I would showcase that strength, that inner mental strength. And that to me was beautiful. Now, did I enjoy winning a championship and then doing a photograph with the trophy in a pretty dress? Of course, like I had a hair and makeup team that would make me feel like I was a princess.

And I was so fortunate to work with amazing brands that would offer me pretty dresses to take the photo in that iconic post championship trophy. And yes, are those I mean, there are certainly moments that I'm going to miss because you do feel like you're on top of the world. You have a you know, you've just accomplished something in sport and then you're wearing a beautiful dress. And it's kind of this, you know, I guess there like two polar opposites.

Yes, exactly. But that's I think what made me successful in that world is that my priority and what I really, truly believed in was my mental strength. And that was much more beautiful than than anything else I could have offered. I agree.

And that was beautifully put to what is your relationship to tennis now? I. I love the sport and I love so many aspects of it, but I, I was really ready to let go, like my body was ready, my mind was ready. And it's so interesting because for as penetrating of a sport in my career as it was and as consuming as it was, like when you would enter my home and you'd go into any bedroom, there was no evidence of the sport.

There was no racket anywhere, not in the corner. There was no trophy. There were no photographs of holding trophy.

Well, that's business in a way. It's a passion, but it's business.

I didn't do it consciously because, I mean, part of it was just I just don't like a lot of crap laying around a very clean static. And it's minimal.

It's a little like, I don't know, it's a little straight. Like I don't like a lot of stuff. And I never had a lot of photos or memories. And they were always kind of in my mind, but never exposed. Like I have the I have racquets with which I won my five grand slams.

And I have those actually I don't even know where they are, but I know so that I think it explains a little bit of my relationship, like when I would exit my home, get in the car and I would get to the club and I would get to the court and I'd close the gate of the court. It was all business. And this was like I just I put so much focus in and that was my greatest strength, like anything could be going on in the world, whether it was good or bad in my life.

And when I would enter that court, it was as if nothing existed because I didn't have time to think like I had to. I had to be fast. I had to be sharp. I had to be smart. I had to be around a team that would share feedback and information that I would have to swallow. Sometimes it was critical, sometimes it was tough. So I didn't have time to think about anything else like I was in it.

And then I would leave. And that's the time where I expose myself to business and to art, to architecture, where I would spend time with my friends. And I didn't I didn't feel bad about all these other interests because I knew that when I would get to the court, that was important. And I still feel like that that is my relationship so much. I mean, I know the sport like the back of my hand. There's nothing that I will know better.

But I'm also happy putting it aside and saying this was an incredibly beautiful chapter in my life and there is a lot more things to come.

Well, that's incredible. And. I'm thinking I've read about this, and I don't know if this is true, you've dealt with a lot of physical pain, which makes sense, and you were suspended because of medication that you were taking for the pain or some sort of analgesic or something. And and then you were suspended for 15 months. Is that accurate? Yes, I did play for two months.

Did you feel that that was like a stain on a perfect record? I mean, how do you emotionally feel about that? How did you feel then? Did it give you time to think about the fact that you would retire? I mean, how did you process that? Did you turn that into a place where you made it into a positive? I'm just curious how you process that.

I will say that nothing in a sporting career is ever perfect. And just because I mean, the perfect example of that is I want to my third grand slam. I was twenty one years old. I had been playing the best tennis of my life. And four months later I was on the operations table getting shoulder surgery. My God. And I felt like, I mean, literally, that I could accomplish so much more because I was producing the game that I was producing was better and better with every event that I was playing.

And at that age is really where you are. It's kind of a beginning of a peak in a tennis career. So that was that was taken away from me with this injury. And that was really physically, mentally challenging. Like I went through some dark moments where I just I didn't know if I'd ever be able to hit a serve again without excruciating pain. Wow. Now, that pain came back again six, seven, eight years later, just because of the way that my the looseness of my shoulder and the emotions of my stroke.

So I've always been ready for those challenges and ups and downs. But being away from from a sport for 15 months but being at a completely different age is is also slightly different, because at that point, I was already thinking about family. I was already thinking about retirement. I never thought I'd play past 30. So it was just a different in two very different experiences, but both incredibly challenging and in instances that I learned a lot from.

Well, now it's been nine months. So how does your body feel now? Do you feel like you're having a cleansed from just sleeping and detoxing from being in that journey and that sport? I mean, it must feel very like you're like you're releasing something.

I wouldn't say it's been a cleanse because I did I had a phenomenal team, like I had a physio that would work on my shoulder. I mean, for probably more than the amount of time I spent on the court in the last couple of years, because that's how much it took for me to get on the court. So I realized the importance of having my body worked on for, you know, which was nice, but it was also excruciating.

You're constantly thinking you wake up and you're constantly thinking what you need to be doing for your shoulder. You know what? It was just like constant maintenance. So that's been that's been nice. But that's more mental because you can just let go and not constantly be on edge that if you have an hour off, that means you're doing something wrong because you're not taking care of it that day.

That sounds like a tremendous amount of anxiety and noise, just like. Yeah. And also just I mean, there are days where you you you can't even get through practice and you have this team that you employ if three to four, sometimes five people that are there on the practice court and your body occasionally lets go and breaks down and you can't even finish practice. And that sounds there.

I have to tell you, I've had incredible career, but that sounds like that sounds like mental torture, not even just physical. That sounds like mental torture. It's it's definitely I mean, I like the people that I worked with.

I, I, I chose them and I hired them because they were their values were so strong. And I knew that they were the people that I wanted to that I felt comfortable, like being vulnerable and I felt comfortable having those injuries and I felt comfortable losing. And I we say no matter what profession you're in, it's so important to choose team members that you're you would rather be comfortable losing in because you can win with any you win. Everyone's going to be happy.

Everyone knows how to celebrate. But it's the team when you're down and when you're going through hardship, it's that team that you need at that time for you to be comfortable in their just in their presence. Right. Like when no one is saying anything. And this is this comfortable silence, like that's when you know that you have really good people. And so I did surround myself with individuals that supported me along the way. But it was still it's hard to make a call to your mom and say, you know, I just I can't practice for the next three days because I just can't I can't serve.

I have. Do something about it, and that's tough on the family and then kind of trickles down, so those elements in the last couple of years were just starting to add up. And I've always been fairly stubborn in my support. And I think that's got me to wonderful places. But in the end, I think it sometimes can become a detriment because you you're so stubborn to keep going that you lose sight of the new things and new opportunities that that could be in front of you.

Right. That could be right in front of your eyes.

So now you have time, more free time. I mean, presumably and I think I have a name for your home life. I just thought of it while we were talking a home. Home court or court. Home court or courthouse. So those are those two or three. The next one you don't have to pay for courthouse. Sounds a little with the courts here, it would be a little more upscale. Enough that. So what would you have been if you were not a tennis player?

I would probably have been an architect because I love it. I love the engineering side. I love concepts and execution. I love seeing people put together an idea and watching it just come to life. Whether that's I mean, for me, it's been through clothing, through shoes.

And then eventually it went into I built my own home from scratch and I was really involved in the entire process in California. And I finished it and I said, wow, I would do this again tomorrow. Now, I didn't have the time for it. But eventually that is something that I'm deeply interested in and currently have a few architectural projects in the works, particularly in the health and wellness space within with an architect, because I love I have a good understanding of space and utilizing it and making sure that when you either you're you're working out or you're going to a social event, that it feels cohesive, that it works with, that it's authentic to what people are doing and what they're now attracted to.

So many spaces are not utilized in a whether it's a home, whether it's a gym. So I love putting those ideas together and creating cool concepts. Well, you could do it in five years from now. You would be thirty eight. And that was when I first started to achieve success. You already you're way ahead of people. You can have five careers. So who do you think is the greatest athlete of all time? It could be in any sport.

I'm just curious who your opinion I have. I have an opinion about, about what I think, but I'm curious about what you think.

Well, I do think Serena will definitely be somewhere on top of that list, no doubt her achievements are incredible, just one over 20 grand slams and still competing for more crazy. Well, there are so many. I mean, I. I really value my relationship with Billie Jean King. And I think of her as an example of someone that is so selfless and just helped. I mean, she helped each and every single tennis player become who they are, financially secure, successful.

She created a space in which we we all competed and played at and made and made great money. So I always think of her when I think of the best athletes of all time.

Well, the most important thing is that I know that your time is valuable. And I loved talking to you.

Thank you very much, Bethany. I love the conversation myself.

What an elegant, poised, smart, thoughtful person who really cares, who definitely revealed herself in different ways and, you know, again, got the sense of who Maria Sharapova really is and to leave every interview, I just feel like there's nothing else that I needed to ask that guy.

There's nothing else I need to know.

I understand who was Maria Sharapova is. And I'm just so grateful, you know, we move so quickly and we're driving through to get our coffee and we're just rushing out of checkout boxes and online.

And it's just like to sit and have a living, breathing conversation and learn about someone who's really done it at such a young age and accomplished so much with such a discipline and focus and passion and drive and success is incredible.

So keep listening and keep continuing to rate review and subscribe. It's just proving the basic rule. If you love what you do, you'll be successful at it, because I love doing this more than anything else that I'm doing.

Just be his hosted and executive produced by me, Bethenny Frankel, Brail Productions and Endeavor Content, our managing producer is Samantha Allison and our producer is Caroline Hamilton. Corey Preventer is our consulting producer with the ever faithful Sarah Act as our assistant producer. Our development executive is Nayantara. Jospeh is a production of Endeavour content and spoke media. This episode was mixed by Sam Baer. And to catch more moments from the show, follow us on Instagram and just be with Beth.