Judy Murray insists she wasn’t an ‘overbearing, pushy mother’ and says she wouldn’t have been criticised for being ‘competitive’ if she was a man
- Scottish coach Judy Murray insisted she wasn’t an ‘overbearing, pushy mother’
- Andy Murray’s mum often seen ‘pumping my fist or baring my teeth’ courtside
- Suggested she wouldn’t have been labelled with characteristics if she was a man
She’s often seen courtside cheering on her tennis champion sons Andy and Jamie, but Judy Murray has revealed she’s unhappy with the perception of her as a ‘pushy’ mother.
Scottish coach Judy, 60, insisted she wasn’t ‘overbearing’, despite being constantly pictured ‘pumping my fist or baring my teeth and looking like some kind of Braveheart’.
Speaking to The Times, the ambassador for the Women’s Tennis Association suggested she wouldn’t have been labelled with the unfair characteristics if she was a man.
Judy, whose Twitter bio reads: ‘Tennis coach, pushy mum. allegedly’, said: ‘I can’t begin to tell you how much it annoyed me over the years: “Pushy mum, overbearing”, all written by people who don’t even know me. I’m not that at all.
She’s often seen courtside cheering on her Tennis champion sons Andy and Jamie, but Judy Murray (pictured with her sons in November 2019) has spoken out about the way she was lambasted in the past for being so vocal
She said she was first given then tag when the family were first thrust into the spotlight at Andy’s first Wimbledon in 2005, when he was 18.
‘There’s something that is almost unacceptable to people of being a competitive woman and certainly a competitive mum. I don’t think I would have come in for the sort of criticism perhaps if I’d been a father of sons or even a mother of daughters.’
Judy, who lives alone in Perthshire following her divorce from her sons’ father, William Murray, in 2004, added that her coaching philosophy was not hard-driving, instead preferring children to play naturally and create their own games.
Scottish coach Judy (pictured in 2017), 60, insisted she wasn’t an ‘overbearing, pushy mother’ despite being constantly pictured ‘pumping my fist or baring my teeth and looking like some kind of Braveheart’
During the interview, conducted via Zoom, Judy admitted she was missing her two boys and her grandchildren who are in England.
Andy, 33, and his wife, Kim, 32, have two daughters and a son under the age of four.
Two-time Wimbledon winner Andy has been recuperating from a pelvic injury during the suspension of competitive tennis, but will play this week in Battle of the Brits, a behind-closed-doors tournament organised by his brother.
Elsewhere, in 2015, Judy confessed that she had receive a ‘huge amount of abuse’ and was even blamed for Andy’s failure to win a grand slam before 2012.
Two-time Wimbledon winner Andy (pictured in 2019) has been recuperating from a pelvic injury during the suspension of competitive tennis, but will play this week in Battle of the Brits, a behind-closed-doors tournament organised by his brother
‘I got a huge amount of abuse from people for being pushy, for supposedly having Andy tied to my apron strings,’ she said in an interview with The Times.
‘People used to say “the reason he hasn’t won a grand slam is because he is scared to lose in front of his mum”.
Judy said it was only after Andy won the US open in 2012 that she was finally seen as a help rather than a hindrance.
The public also warmed to her after getting to see more of her personality thanks to her Twitter presence and appearance on 2014’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Next month Judy will be on our screens once again as she appears on Celebrity MasterChef.