Why Luka Doncic Ends Engagement With Anamaria Goltes, Fighting For His Kids (2026)
March 11, 2026
He is the best scorer in the NBA right now. He is averaging 32.5 points per game — leading the entire league. He just signed a three-year, $165 million contract extension and is the undisputed face of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. By every professional measure, 2026 should be the best year of Luka Doncic’s life.
But behind the jersey, behind the highlight reels, behind every sold-out game at Crypto.com Arena, one of the most dominant basketball players on the planet has been quietly going through something no contract, no championship, and no scoring title can fix.
On Tuesday, March 10, 2026, Luka Doncic confirmed to ESPN what the internet had been speculating about for weeks — he and his longtime fiancée Anamaria Goltes have ended their engagement. The two are now in the middle of a custody battle over their two young daughters, and Doncic revealed a heartbreaking truth: he has barely seen his children in months.
This is the full story. Every detail. Every timeline. Every layer of what is arguably the most emotionally complex situation any active NBA superstar has faced this season.
Who Are Luka Doncic and Anamaria Goltes?
Luka Doncic was born on February 28, 1999, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He was a basketball prodigy from the time he could walk, signed by Real Madrid’s youth academy at 13, made his professional debut at 16, and was drafted third overall by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2018 NBA Draft before being traded to the Dallas Mavericks on draft night.
He became a Rookie of the Year candidate, then an All-Star, then arguably the most gifted offensive talent in the sport. In February 2025, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster deal involving Anthony Davis — one of the most seismic trades in NBA history.
Anamaria Goltes, also 27, is a Slovenian fashion and fitness model with a significant social media following. She and Luka did not meet through fame or celebrity circles. They met as twelve-year-old children on the Croatian island of Krk.
They grew up knowing each other, began dating in 2016 when both were seventeen, and maintained a relationship across one of the most demanding professional careers in global sport — a relationship that survived the chaos of Luka’s rise from European basketball prodigy to American NBA superstar.
On July 7, 2023 — a date that holds particular significance as a nod to his jersey number 77 — Luka proposed to Anamaria on the breathtakingly beautiful shores of Lake Bled in Slovenia.
The engagement was announced publicly and met with widespread celebration from fans across the world who had followed their love story for years. They were, by all outward appearances, one of sport’s most genuine and enduring couples.
Then 2025 happened — and everything changed.
The Timeline: How Everything Fell Apart
November 2023 — Gabriela Is Born
Their first daughter, Gabriela, was born on November 30, 2023 in the United States while Luka was still a member of the Dallas Mavericks. It was a moment of joy that seemed to cement the family’s future. Luka appeared to embrace fatherhood enthusiastically, and the birth was celebrated openly.
February 2025 — The Lakers Trade
On February 1, 2025, the NBA world was rocked by a trade that sent Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis and other assets. For Luka, it meant uprooting his life and relocating to Los Angeles — one of the most demanding and high-profile cities in the world for a celebrity athlete. For a young family, it added an enormous new layer of complexity.
May 2025 — Anamaria Returns to Slovenia
According to court documents filed by Goltes and reviewed by TMZ Sports, Anamaria moved back to Slovenia with their daughter Gabriela in May 2025 — just months after Luka arrived in Los Angeles. The reason for this move has not been publicly stated by either party, but its significance in the unfolding legal situation cannot be understated. From that moment, Luka was in Los Angeles playing basketball, and his daughter and fiancée were on the other side of the world in Slovenia.
September 2026 — Lakers Training Camp Begins
Luka joined the Lakers for pre-season training camp on September 26. According to sources familiar with his situation who spoke to ESPN, from that day forward through all the months that followed, Luka Doncic saw his daughters for a total of just two days. Two days. For a father who insists, with everything he has, that his children are the most important thing in his life.
December 4–6, 2025 — The Birth of Olivia and the Incident That Changed Everything
In early December 2025, Anamaria gave birth to their second daughter, Olivia, in Slovenia. Luka, to his enormous credit, made the trip from the United States to be present for the birth — missing Lakers games against the Toronto Raptors on December 4 and the Boston Celtics on December 5 to be at his partner’s side for the arrival of their second child.
He shared a post on Instagram celebrating Olivia’s birth. By all accounts, this should have been a moment of pure joy.
But on December 6, 2025 — the very next day — everything changed.
According to multiple sources familiar with the situation who spoke directly to ESPN, Luka expressed a desire to bring Gabriela, his older daughter, back to the United States with him when he rejoined the Lakers. He was scheduled to play the Philadelphia 76ers on December 7 and needed to return.
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A disagreement arose between Luka and Anamaria over this request.
The disagreement escalated. Anamaria Goltes called the police to Kranj Maternity Hospital on December 6. Officers arrived at the scene and interviewed both parties. Crucially — and this point cannot be emphasized enough — the police report, which was reviewed directly by ESPN, confirmed that officers “did not detect any elements of a criminal offense or misdemeanor” perpetrated by Doncic. Luka left the hospital peacefully.
He flew back to the United States later that same day.
He has not seen his daughters or Anamaria Goltes since.
That was December 6, 2025. By the time this story broke, it had been over three months since Luka Doncic had laid eyes on his daughters.
February 26, 2026 — Luka Files in Slovenian Courts
Unable to resolve the situation privately, Luka Doncic took legal action on February 26, 2026, filing an interim injunction with the Slovenian courts. The filing sought immediate contact with both Gabriela and Olivia. It was a formal, legal plea from a father trying to see his children — children he had reportedly been financially supporting without any limit since their births.
According to sources who spoke to ESPN, Doncic has always provided for his family and has paid for his daughters’ expenses entirely and without limitation throughout the relationship. This was not a case of a father avoiding financial responsibility. This was a father trying to maintain a physical presence in his children’s lives while being based on a different continent.
March 10, 2026 — Anamaria Files for Child Support. Luka Confirms the Breakup.
On Tuesday morning, March 10, 2026, TMZ Sports obtained and published court documents showing that Anamaria Goltes had filed a petition in California seeking child support and attorney fees from Luka Doncic for their two minor children.
According to those documents, the petition was filed in California — the state where Luka is based — and relates to two children: Gabriela, age 2, and Olivia, now just three months old. Importantly, the filing sought only child support and attorney fees. It did not include any request for custody orders or changes to existing custody arrangements.
Luka Doncic was caught completely off guard. Sources told ESPN directly that he had “no idea” Goltes had filed the petition.
Within hours of the TMZ report, Luka Doncic released his own statement directly to ESPN, confirming what millions had been speculating and putting his own words to the most painful chapter of his personal life.
Luka Doncic’s Full Statement — In His Own Words
This is the statement Luka Doncic provided to ESPN journalist Dave McMenamin on Tuesday, March 10, 2026:
“I love my daughters more than anything and I’ve been doing everything I can for them to be with me in the U.S. during the season, but that hasn’t been possible, so I recently made the tough decision to end my engagement. Everything I do is for my daughters’ happiness and I will always fight to be with them and give them the best life I can.”
Read those words carefully. There is no bitterness. There is no public attack on Anamaria. There is no blame. There is a father, stripped of everything except the truth, telling the world the only thing that matters to him — that he loves his daughters and he will fight for them.
The decision to end the engagement, by his own account, was not driven by the breakdown of a romantic relationship in isolation. It was driven directly by the inability to have his daughters with him. It was the children — or rather, the heartbreaking absence of them — that became the breaking point.
The Social Media Warning Signs Everyone Noticed
In the days and weeks before the official confirmation, social media had already been buzzing with speculation. The signal that sent the internet into full analysis mode came last week when Anamaria Goltes quietly deleted every photo of Luka Doncic from her Instagram account — keeping only images of their children.
For fans who had followed their relationship for years, the deletion of years’ worth of shared photos was not subtle. It was, in the language of modern relationships, a very loud statement made without a single word.
The NBA community on X (formerly Twitter) had already begun drawing conclusions, with fan accounts noting the Instagram purge and connecting it to months of body language analysis from court-side footage and public appearances — or the growing lack of them. Goltes had not been a visible presence in Luka’s world in Los Angeles in the way the partners and families of other Lakers stars had been. The distance was not just geographical — it was becoming increasingly visible.
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Where Luka’s Daughters Are Now — and the Legal Situation
Currently, both Gabriela and Olivia are in Slovenia with their mother Anamaria. Olivia was born in Slovenia and, according to sources, has never set foot in California. Gabriela spent approximately three months in the United States with Luka last spring — the only extended time either child has spent with their father during his time with the Lakers.
The legal situation is now operating on two separate tracks in two separate countries.
In Slovenia, Luka has filed an interim injunction through the Slovenian court system seeking immediate contact with both daughters. This proceeding is ongoing and no ruling has been publicly reported.
In California, Anamaria’s petition for child support and attorney fees is now filed and active. Since it does not include a custody component, the question of where the children live and how much time they spend with each parent remains unresolved by any formal legal arrangement.
The international nature of this dispute adds a layer of legal complexity that makes resolution significantly more complicated than a straightforward domestic custody case. When parents and children are in different countries and legal proceedings are filed in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, these cases can take considerable time to resolve — time that, for a father who has seen his daughters only twice in six months, feels unbearable.
Luka’s Season on the Court — Playing Through Pain
Here is what makes this story even more remarkable. While all of this has been happening behind the scenes — while Luka has been fighting in Slovenian courts, while he has been separated from his daughters, while his engagement has been crumbling — he has been putting together one of the finest individual seasons in the NBA.
In 52 games in his first full season with the Los Angeles Lakers, Luka Doncic is averaging a league-leading 32.5 points per game — on pace for his second scoring title. He is also adding 8.4 assists and 7.8 rebounds per game. He is the MVP conversation. He is the reason the Lakers are a legitimate playoff contender. He has shown up every single night, in every single game, and delivered.
There is something both admirable and quietly devastating about that. Every basket scored, every game played, every extraordinary performance delivered — all of it while knowing his daughters were sleeping 5,000 miles away and he did not know when he would see them again.
In December, after returning from Slovenia and playing the Philadelphia 76ers the day after the incident at Kranj Maternity Hospital, a reporter asked Doncic about his trip to Slovenia. His answer — raw, unguarded, and clearly pained — was: “I don’t even know how to describe it.”
He did not elaborate. He did not need to.
Who Is Anamaria Goltes?
Anamaria Goltes has not released a public statement in response to Luka’s confirmation of the breakup. She has not given interviews. She has not spoken through representatives to the media. The only public action she has taken is the deletion of Luka’s photos from her Instagram and the filing of the child support petition in California.
Anamaria is 27 years old. She is a fashion and fitness model. She and Luka have known each other for fifteen years. She is the mother of a two-year-old and a three-month-old baby. She has chosen to file only for child support and attorney fees — not for custody changes. Whether that reflects a desire to resolve the financial dimension of their separation without escalating into a full custody war, or whether it is simply the first legal step in a longer process, is not yet clear.
What is clear is that this is a situation involving two people who genuinely loved each other for a very long time, two very young children, an ocean of physical distance, and the extraordinary and unique pressures that come with being the partner of one of the most famous athletes in the world. None of that is simple. None of it is without pain on all sides.
The Broader Picture — Athletes, Family, and the Cost of Greatness
Luka Doncic’s situation shines a light on a tension that exists at the heart of professional sport that is rarely discussed openly: the enormous personal cost that elite athletic careers extract from family life.
Luka plays 82 regular season games per year, travels across the entire country, trains year-round, and is the primary commercial and competitive centerpiece of a franchise worth billions of dollars. He is simultaneously expected to be present, committed, and fully available — both to his team and to his family — across two different continents and multiple time zones.
Anamaria, meanwhile, gave birth to two children within two years, relocated to Los Angeles for a period, returned to Slovenia, and has been raising two infants largely without the physical presence of their father — not, it must be said, because he did not want to be there, but because the NBA schedule makes sustained physical presence across an ocean almost logistically impossible during the season.
This is not a story about a villain and a victim. It is a story about two young people, both 27 years old, trying to navigate a relationship, two young children, an international lifestyle, and one of the most demanding professional environments on earth — and finding, ultimately, that those things could not all be held together at the same time.
What Happens Next
The immediate focus for Luka Doncic, both legally and personally, is clear: he wants to see his daughters. His interim injunction in Slovenia is seeking immediate contact. His statement to ESPN could not have been more explicit — everything he does is for his daughters, and he will always fight for them.
On the court, Luka has a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves to prepare for — and whatever personal devastation he is carrying into that game, history suggests he will carry it silently and perform anyway.
The legal proceedings in both Slovenia and California will take time to unfold. No custody arrangements have been formally established. No final rulings have been made. The situation remains fluid, painful, and unresolved.
What is resolved — permanently and formally — is the engagement. The Lake Bled proposal. The July 7th date chosen for the jersey number. The years of childhood friendship and adolescent romance and young adult love. That chapter is now closed.
What remains open — what Luka has made very clear cannot and will not be closed — is his relationship with Gabriela and Olivia. His daughters. The reason, by his own words, for everything.
FAQs — Luka Doncic and Anamaria Goltes Breakup
Q1: Why did Luka Doncic end his engagement to Anamaria Goltes? Luka Doncic stated directly in his ESPN statement that the primary reason he ended the engagement was his inability to have his daughters with him in the United States during the NBA season.
His core reason was not purely romantic breakdown — it was the heartbreaking reality that his children were inaccessible to him. He has been fighting through Slovenian courts to see them and made the decision to formally end the engagement in the context of that ongoing battle.
Q2: How many children do Luka Doncic and Anamaria Goltes have? They have two daughters together. Gabriela was born on November 30, 2023, in the United States while Luka was still with the Dallas Mavericks.
Olivia was born in December 2025 in Slovenia. Olivia is approximately three months old at the time of writing and has never been to California.
Q3: What did Anamaria Goltes file in court? Anamaria Goltes filed a petition for child support and attorney fees in California. The petition relates to both daughters and was filed on March 10, 2026.
Crucially, the petition did not include any request for custody orders — meaning it addressed only the financial dimension of the separation, not where the children will live or how much time they spend with each parent.
Q4: Did Luka Doncic know Anamaria had filed the petition? No. Sources familiar with Doncic’s situation told ESPN directly that he had absolutely no idea Goltes had filed the child support petition.
He learned about it when the TMZ report was published — the same way the rest of the world did.
Q5: When did Luka and Anamaria first meet? Luka Doncic and Anamaria Goltes first met as twelve-year-old children on the Croatian island of Krk.
They began dating in 2016 when both were seventeen years old. They have known each other for approximately fifteen years.
Q6: When did Luka propose to Anamaria? Luka proposed on July 7, 2023 — a date deliberately chosen to reference his jersey number 77 — at Lake Bled, one of Slovenia’s most iconic and beautiful locations.
The proposal was publicly announced and celebrated widely by fans of both the NBA and the couple.
Q7: What happened at Kranj Maternity Hospital in December 2025? After traveling to Slovenia for the birth of his second daughter Olivia, Luka expressed a desire to bring his older daughter Gabriela back to the United States with him.
A disagreement arose with Anamaria over this request. The situation escalated and Anamaria called the police to Kranj Maternity Hospital on December 6, 2025.
Officers arrived, interviewed both parties, and according to the police report reviewed by ESPN, found no criminal offense or misdemeanor committed by Doncic. He left peacefully and flew back to the United States that same day. He has not seen his daughters since.
Q8: How long has it been since Luka Doncic saw his daughters? As of the time of publication, Luka has not seen his daughters since December 6, 2025 — over three months ago.
Sources told ESPN that since joining Lakers training camp on September 26, 2025, Doncic has seen his daughters for a total of only two days across that entire period.
Q9: Has Anamaria Goltes responded publicly to Luka’s statement? No. As of publication, Anamaria Goltes has not released any public statement in response to Luka’s ESPN confirmation of the breakup.
She has not spoken to the media and has not addressed the situation publicly. The only visible public action she has taken was deleting all photos of Luka from her Instagram account in the days before the story broke.
Q10: How is Luka performing on the court despite all of this? Remarkably. Despite carrying this personal devastation through the entire season, Luka Doncic is leading the NBA in scoring with 32.5 points per game in 52 games.
He is also averaging 8.4 assists and 7.8 rebounds — putting together an MVP-caliber first full season with the Los Angeles Lakers. He signed a three-year, $165 million contract extension with the team in August 2025.
Q11: What legal steps has Luka taken to see his daughters? On February 26, 2026, Luka Doncic filed an interim injunction through the Slovenian court system seeking immediate contact with both Gabriela and Olivia.
That legal proceeding is ongoing. He is simultaneously dealing with Anamaria’s California child support petition, which will be handled through the American legal system.
Q12: Could this custody battle become international in legal scope? Yes — and that is one of the most significant complications of this case. Luka is based in California under an NBA contract. His daughters and their mother are in Slovenia. Legal proceedings are currently active in both countries simultaneously.
International custody cases involving children in different countries from their parents are among the most complex in family law, governed in part by the Hague Convention on international child abduction and parental rights. These cases routinely take considerably longer to resolve than domestic custody disputes.
Conclusion
Luka Doncic is 27 years old. He is the best basketball player performing in the NBA right now by virtually any statistical measure. And he is a father who has not seen his daughters in over three months — not because he does not love them, not because he has abandoned them financially or emotionally, but because geography, a broken engagement, and the most punishing professional sports schedule in the world have combined to keep them apart.
His statement to ESPN was not that of a superstar managing a public relations crisis. It was that of a father putting the truth into words the only way he knew how. He loves his daughters more than anything. Everything he does is for them. And he will always fight to be with them.
For all the points scored, all the games won, all the contracts signed — that fight is the one that matters most.
This is a developing story. Legal proceedings in both Slovenia and California are ongoing. All information is based on reporting from ESPN, TMZ Sports, and confirmed public statements as of March 11, 2026. This article does not constitute legal advice.
