Bjorn Borg reveals cardiac arrest, party-era collapse and cancer fight in memoir

Tennis legend Bjorn Borg says he suffered a cardiac arrest on a bridge during a night of heavy partying and is living day by day with an aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis, according to his forthcoming memoir Heartbeats. The 69-year-old Swede—whose 11 Grand Slams and five straight Wimbledon titles made him a global icon—says he underwent an operation last year and is in remission. He also recounts a dramatic near-death episode that began with a chaotic evening and ended with him being resuscitated after collapsing on the Dutch bridge.

Borg, who dominated tennis in the late 1970s, details a descent into a wild period of drinking and drug use after he quit the sport at age 25. The memoir includes the moment he collapsed on a Dutch bridge and says his heart stopped, requiring intervention to restart it. He describes feeling as if he were sinking and says the experience left him shaken about the path his life had taken. In an interview woven into the narrative, Borg tells BBC Breakfast that he spoke with his doctor, who warned that the cancer could pose a continuing fight: “I spoke to the doctor and he said this is really, really bad. He said you have these sleeping cancer cells [and] it's going to be a fight in the future.”

After a long, low-key dinner with friends at an exhibition event, Borg describes a night that spiraled into what he calls a lethal cocktail of drink and drugs. He writes that he encountered people from outside the tennis world, and that “drugs, alcohol, and pills were added.” The evening ended with him unable to play the next day, and he walked to the tennis venue with his father before collapsing. The episode culminated in a hospital recovery that Borg says his father attended, an image that he says haunts him as the nadir of a decade of excess. He has said the moment of waking in the hospital was among the most painful memories of his life. The memoir recounts a later hospitalization in which he required stomach pumping after a night he describes as “wild,” and he emphasizes that he does not view it as a suicide attempt but rather the consequences of a pattern of behavior.

In the memoir’s closing chapters, Borg writes that the cancer is “at its most advanced stage” and that he treats his life as though he were playing a Wimbledon final. He says his health battle is ongoing and that his outlook is shaped by a need to balance hope with realism. He recalls speaking with his doctor and hearing blunt assessments about prognosis, and he says he has learned to take steps one day at a time while maintaining a rigorous routine of medical testing.

The book also captures Borg’s long break from the public eye and his cautious return to life with the support of his family. He says that he stopped the self-destructive behaviors with the help of his third wife, Patricia Östfeld, and that he now maintains a strong relationship with their two sons. He describes a desire for privacy during the years after his retirement from tennis and explains that the decision to publish now stems from a wish to have “a good beginning and a good ending” to his story. Borg’s forthcoming memoir Heartbeats is slated for release in the United Kingdom and United States next week, and it promises to offer a candid window into a life that alternated between sporting supremacy and personal upheaval.

As Borg contends with the realities of a life lived in the public eye, he frames his experiences as a testament to resilience rather than a reckoning with regret. He has emphasized that his aim is to provide a complete narrative—one that acknowledges both the triumphs on the court and the frailties off it—while continuing to monitor his health closely through regular medical checkups. The memoir’s revelations have drawn renewed attention to Borg’s impact on the sport and to the pressures faced by athletes who transition from the peak of global stardom to quieter, private lives. With his health status uncertain and his past years under intense public scrutiny, Borg’s reflections illuminate a broader conversation about lifestyle, legacy, and the ongoing challenge of living with serious illness.