Sir Andy Murray is used to being in the spotlight for his tennis. Now the Wimbledon champion has allowed fans a rare glimpse of his family life.
In an extraordinary documentary cameras have followed the 33-year-old’s comeback from chronic hip problems over the past two years.
Intimate footage shows Murray enjoying time at home with his daughters Sophia, three, and Edie, two, as one of them combs his hair with a plastic brush, building a snowman with his wife Kim, and riding a scooter around the grounds of his Surrey mansion.
The doting father is seen sitting on the sofa with his daughters at their then home in Oxshott, Surrey, and dancing with them to hit childrens’ song Baby Shark.
Other footage shows Murray, his 32-year-old wife and one of his daughters out in the thick snow building a snowman in the garden.
Murray is also captured cradling one of his girls, whose faces are not shown, on the practice court at Oxshott sports club. Since filming the Murrays have had a third child, son Ted, who was born last month.
The documentary for Amazon Prime Video, titled Andy Murray: Resurfacing, was released yesterday. In it, Murray’s father Will says fatherhood and hip surgery have made his son mellower.
He said the three-time Grand Slam winner had discovered how to be happy without the sport and was now a ‘different guy’.
The 66-year-old said: ‘I think he realises there is a lot more happening in his world rather than tennis because he has been away from it for a few months.
He’s got a young family and I think he’s going to enjoy that and I think he will enjoy them coming to see him play.
‘If he can get to play singles again to the same level I think you will find a different guy. I believe that because I do think he is more relaxed. I see a young man who looks happy with himself and happy in his life.’
As well as showing snippets of his family life, the film follows an emotional Murray before surgery and during his recovery.
He had a career-saving hip resurfacing operation in January and made his competitive return to tennis in the doubles at Queen’s in June. He won the title with Spaniard partner Feliciano Lopez.
One sequence shows the former world number one doing some breakdancing as part of his rehabilitation, while another shows him scootering outside.
Towards the end of the film, Murray’s daughters are filmed watching him make his return to the game, with the youngest pointing and shouting: ‘Daddy!’
Murray’s mother Judy and brother Jamie also feature, as well as his on-court rivals Ro
ger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Murray tells how tennis helped him deal with the Dunblane school massacre and his parents’ divorce.
He was a pupil at Dunblane primary school in 1996 when Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 children and a teacher.
He is still so scarred by the experience that he was unable to talk about it directly to camera, instead leaving a tearful voice message on the director’s phone.
Murray tells director Olivia Cappuccini: ‘You asked me a while ago why tennis was important to me. Obviously I had the thing that happened at Dunblane when I was around nine.
I am sure for all the kids there it would be difficult for different reasons.
The fact we knew the guy, we went to his kids’ club, he had been in our car, we had driven and dropped him off at train stations and things.
‘Within 12 months of that happening, our parents got divorced. That was a difficult time. And then my brother moved away.
We used to do everything together so that was quite hard.
‘For a year or so I had lots of anxiety that came out when I was playing tennis. I would get really bad breathing problems.
‘My feelings towards tennis is that it’s an escape for me in some ways. That’s why tennis is important to me.’
