Los Angeles, July 20 : American Tennis legend Chris Evert has admitted that her love affair with the Golfer Greg Norman was behind the demise of their respective previous marriages.

Evert revealed that in an effort to overcome their mutual attraction, she and Norman had tried to fight their desire for each other and had also undergone couples-counselling with their longtime spouses, Andy Mill and Laura Andrassy respectively.

But, Evert said, counselling did not work and they dissolved their marriages to be together.

"It was like an irresistible force," she said and added, "How do you explain something like that?"

It is the first time that the sporting power couples have publicly admitted that they had embarked on an illicit romantic relationship while they were still with their spouses.

According to the American edition of Vogue, both Evert and Norman had repeatedly maintained in the past that there were no third parties involved when they separated from their partners in 2006.

The marriage is Norman's second and Evert's third.

ANI