Ashley Harkleroad, the tennis star who became the first active player to pose nude in Playboy, was forced to edit a recent Instagram photo, covering her bikini bottoms with a heart as she lay on her back with her legs in the air.
Career and Playboy history
Harkleroad posed for Playboy in August 2008 during the prime of her tennis career. The American reached a career-high ranking of 39th in the world in 2003 at age 18, after a run to the third round at Roland Garros. She retired from tennis in 2012 at 27, moving into modelling and opening an adult subscription account in 2022, which has since been deleted.
She continues to post regularly to her 130,000 Instagram followers, sharing bikini snaps and recreational tennis photos. Fans reacted to her recent edited post with comments such as "You look so beautiful!" and "My teenage crush is ageing like fine wine!"
Playboy opportunity and personal life
In early 2008, Harkleroad was recovering from ovarian cyst surgery when the Playboy offer came at age 23. She said after a French Open defeat to Serena Williams that year: "I was just laying there for three weeks, and, you know, an offer came to me. I thought, well, I'm not really doing anything right now so I thought about it and it was something that I did. I'm proud of my body. I was representing a female athlete's body."
She was married to fellow tennis pro Chuck Adams, but they split this year after Adams filed divorce papers citing "irreconcilable differences." The couple wed in September 2009 and had two children together. Harkleroad told TMZ: "I got married when I was 19 years old. I've spent the majority of my life listening to men. Obeying them, my dad, my coach who was also my husband. And although he is an incredible father and lifelong friend it's time for me to live my life on my own terms. I deserve that. Freedom."
This was her second divorce, following her marriage to tennis pro Alex Bogomolov Jr from 2004 to 2006.
