Iconic sportswoman and activist Billie Jean King honored with Hollywood star

Iconic tennis player and former world number one Billie Jean King received the 2,807th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday.

King famously competed against male tennis player Bobby Riggs in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” in order to promote equal pay between male and female sports stars. She ended up defeating Riggs.

Former basketball player Magic Johnson was a special guest at the ceremony.

“She’s an amazing person, and what I love about Billie Jean is that she used her platform to bring about change. When we talk about that ‘Battle of the Sexes’, it was more than just you beating Bobby Riggs. You were fighting for equal pay for women and all these young ladies that are making all these millions and millions of dollars today should be thanking you for what you did for all of them,” Johnson said.

King was the first female athlete to receive both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. She is the founder of both the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Women’s Tennis Association.

King came out as a lesbian in 1981, and has advocated for LGBTQ rights. King’s wife, former tennis player Ilana Kloss, also attended the ceremony.

Actor Jamie Lee Curtis said, “There is not a woman in any professional sport or any LGBTQ+ human being whose life has not been shaped and helped and supported by this extraordinary woman’s great talents and her even greater contributions to improving the lives of other people on a daily basis.”