Maria Sharapova Is Engaged to a British Businessman With Royal Ties

Game, set… it’s a match! Now that Maria Sharapova is about to head down the aisle with her new fiancé, it’s time to learn more details about Alexander Gilkes — his net worth, his career, his royal affiliations, and his relationship with the tennis star!

Maria, who was previously engaged to former Los Angeles Lakers player Sasha Vujačić, seems totally smitten with Alexander, and you gotta admit the man has an impressive story…

According to News.com.au, the Brit has a reported net worth in the range of $20 million. (Maria likely has him beat, though: At the time of her retirement in February 2020, the Russian-born athlete had made $325 million in career earnings, as Forbes reported at the time.)

According to his online bio, Alexander started his career at LVHM — parent company of the Louis Vuitton, Moët, and Hennessy brands — where he helped bolster Krug Champagne’s profile and became the company’s youngest-ever executive team member. 

He was also the co-founder and president of the online auction house Paddle8, which was the world’s fifth largest auction house until its sale in 2016. Along the way, he helped raise over $300 million for AmfAR, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, UNICEF, and other nonprofits.

These days, Alexander a contributing editor to British Vogue and the cofounder of Squared Circles, which bills itself as “a venture studio, residing at the intersection of operations, branding, capital and talent.”

Alexander went to school at Eton College with Prince William and Prince Harry, according to HollywoodLife.com, and his younger brother, Charles, once dated Duchess Kate’s younger sister, Pippa Middleton.

The entrepreneur was also married to fashion designer Misha Nonoo — one of Duchess Meghan’s closest friends — from 2014 to 2017. (Misha, you might recall, is rumored to be the matchmaker who set Harry and Meghan up on their first date.)

The royal connections don’t end there, though. Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie attended Alexander and Misha’s wedding, as did James Middleton, Kate’s younger brother. And in 2018, Alexander attended Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank. (Alexander marked the occasion on Instagram at the time, writing, “The start of the post wedding waddle home with a head full of elated memories and a belly full of bubbles from the happiest day of celebrations for Eugenie and Jack.”)

The couple, who first went public with their relationship in 2018, broke the engagement news in simultaneous Instagram uploads on Thursday, Dec. 17, both using the diamond ring emoji in their posts.

“Thank you for making me a very, very happy boy and saying yes,” Alexander wrote in his missive. “I look forward to a lifetime of loving you, and learning from you @mariasharapova.”

And in her post, the tennis champ wrote, “I said yes from the first day we met. This was our little secret, wasn’t it, @gilkesa?”

So far, some big names are celebrating Maria and Alexander’s engagement. Actress Lily Collins, for example, commented on Maria’s post with no fewer than a dozen sparkling heart emojis.