She is the highest-paid female athlete in the world. She is a Grand Slam champion, has her own fashion line, endorsement deals, and a life of glamour in Los Angeles. But tennis superstar Maria Sharapova says her life would have been very ...See moreShe is the highest-paid female athlete in the world. She is a Grand Slam champion, has her own fashion line, endorsement deals, and a life of glamour in Los Angeles. But tennis superstar Maria Sharapova says her life would have been very different if the worst nuclear reactor explosion in history had never happened. Sharapova's parents were living less than an hundred miles from Ukraine's Chernobyl power plant in 1986. Within a few months of the disaster, her parents discovered they were pregnant. Fearful of the birth defects caused by radioactive materials in the area, Sharapova's parents fled to western Siberia. Five months after moving there, Maria was born. Now, for the first time in over a decade, Maria Sharapova returns to the place that was once her family's home...to the place she was conceived...to the place where decisions were made that ultimately shaped her life...to Gomel, Belarus and the area surrounding Chernobyl. From Wimbledon to Russia, in an E:60 exclusive, follow along with the four-time Grand Slam Champion on her journey back.
See less