Just In: Who Is Emma Raducanu’s New Boyfriend? Tennis Fans Left Stunned as Emma Raducanu’s Unusual Relationship History Is Explained
Just In: Who Is Emma Raducanu’s New Boyfriend? Tennis Fans Left Stunned as Emma Raducanu’s Unusual Relationship History Is Explained
Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu has pulled out of Wimbledon 2026 due to a leg injury. The British hopeful announced the decision the day before the tournament began explaining that a ‘niggle’ has developed into a ‘stress fracture’ and she’s been ‘medically advised to stop pushing through’.
It’s a blow to tennis fans who remain hopeful that Raducanu, who stormed onto the world stage in 2021 when she won the US Open and became the first British women to win a major singles title since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977, can one day win at home.
However, Raducanu’s influence extends far beyond the sport that made her famous. Alongside her tennis career, she has developed a 2.9 million following on social media, become the face of several global brands (most recently Uniqlo) and graced the cover of multiple fashion magazines, including this one.
She’s also recently started dating someone.
Who is Emma Raducanu’s boyfriend?
Emma Raducanu is in a new romantic relationship with PR expert John Friend. He attended the elite, private Harrow School in London and then joined the army as a paratrooper, before leaving to work in corporate communications. Friend is currently the director of his own PR firm, JSGF.
Earlier in June, they were spotted kissing in Battersea Park. Raducanu was asked about the pictures when she announced she was pulling out of Wimbledon and said, ‘Very cordially put. I would say that, look, I have great people around me. I have amazing support from my team, from my family, from my friends. It means a lot. I think especially when you’re going through setbacks, it helps. I think just being around positive people, around positive influences, it’s always going to help through tough times.’
How did Emma Raducanu and her boyfriend meet?
While it has not been confirmed exactly how Raducanu and her new boyfriend met, it’s likely that they met through high society on the tennis scene. Friend’s father is a committee member at Queen’s Club, the venue where Raducanu recently reached the singles final, and they were first pictured together shortly after the tennis star’s defeat.
What is Emma Raducanu and her boyfriend’s age gap?
The couple have an age gap of nine years. Raducanu is 23 years old and Friend is 32.
What happened to Emma Raducanu’s boyfriend’s brother?
Tragically, Friend’s brother Will was struck by lightning on a boat trip with friends in North Carolina back in 2022. He died at the age of 33. His death made headlines not only because of the circumstances, but because Will had been married to Hollywood actress Bevin Price, who starred as Bevin Mirskey in One Tree Hill.
Friend also lost his mother Antoinette in 2018 to breast cancer. And in 2024, Friend’s other older brother Tom died, also at the age of 33.
Who else has Emma Raducanu dated?
‘My parents were very much against [boyfriends] as it interfered with training,’ Raducanu told The Times in 2024. ‘When I was younger, I wasn’t even allowed to hang out with my girlfriends. A lot of the time, I was very resentful. But it made me confident and comfortable in my own company, which is also a big strength.’
Still, she has previously been linked to billionaire heir Carlo Agostinelli, who she reportedly met in May 2023. They were pictured arm in arm at the Dior show during Paris Fashion Week that year (Agostinelli’s mother is a PR executive at Dior Couture and his father is a billionaire financier), but reportedly split in June 2024.
Last year, there were rumours that Raducanu might be dating fellow tennis champion Carlos Alcaraz, who was her mixed doubles partner at the US Open. However, in June she clarified that they were ‘just friends’. Alcaraz has also said ‘it can be difficult as a tennis player to meet the right person because you are travelling all the time’.
