Roger Federer may have officially hung up his racket in 2022, but the father-of-four says his life is still very busy – it’s just more than dad kind of busy.
– Four children is a lot of work! he tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “We have twin boys who are 10 and twin girls who are almost 15. So now I feel like it’s also a very important time to be with them and help them, guide them, and obviously let them fly on their own, especially the girls. ”
Federer says he likes being with his wife Mirka and children in the morning, as well as when they come home from school.
“I used to have to sleep in the morning because of late matches or whatever. It’s completely different now,” he says. “I have to wake up when the kids do and help them get ready.”
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Having invested his work with his various brand ambassadors, his federation and his latest project, the documentary film Prime Federer: Twelve final days (June 20), he’s back in dad mode.
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“Then I can reconnect with the kids about their sports and homework,” he says.
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The past year was also full of family vacations, including a trip to Dubai, and he also took the children to Lesotho, a small country in South Africa where he is building schools through his Roger Federer Foundation.
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“Not all rhinos and giraffes are in that part of the world, it’s a completely different part of Africa. It was nice for the children to see. I’m trying to inspire them with the philanthropic work we do.”
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Mirka Federer and children at Wimbledon 2019.
Team Clayton/Corbis via Getty
Federer is already thinking about the rest of his summer. He recently took the family to watch him give the commencement speech at Dartmouth before jetting off to London for the film’s premiere Twelve final days.
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Maybe they’ll go on a family vacation to Italy, and maybe he’ll bring the kids back to Wimbledon in July to walk the courts and revisit their old playgrounds.
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Of course, being a dad to 15-year-old girls means he’ll also be trying to catch Taylor Swift at her show in Zurich in July.
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“We went to a lot of concerts last year,” he says, noting that it was so much fun to get on stage with Coldplay at their show in Zurich last summer.
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“I didn’t sing, I just played some shaker,” he says, laughing. “But we saw it too [Bruce] Springsteen twice, and Elton John. Taylor Swift is coming to Switzerland this summer so of course we’ll be going there, as will ACDC.”
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They also enjoy other fun hobbies, including learning to play golf together as a family, and have recently tried their hand at scuba diving.
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Roger Federer and family visit the Rugby World Cup in France.
AbacaPress / SplashNews
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“Now I can actually get into everything that everyone in the family is doing now,” he says. “Now I can jump in the water and try diving, whereas before I thought, I can’t, I have to rest. So the retirement was very, very good.”
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What’s next? Federer says he might start writing his memoirs at some point, he just needs to find the time: “I feel like I retired just five minutes ago.”
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For more on Federer, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education