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Nearly a year after her painful split from golfer husband Greg Norman, Chris Evert’s life is back on the upswing. “I spent the summer in Aspen healing,” the tennis star, 55, told PEOPLE at
Saturday night s gala for her Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic in Delray Beach, Fla., where $700,00 was raised for neglected and abused children. “My kids are great, and they have their mom
back,” she says, referring to sons Alexander, 19, Nicholas, 16, and Colton, 14. After a romantic June 2008 wedding in the Bahamas, Evert and Norman, also 55, spent a great deal of time
globe-trotting for business and pleasure. This hectic lifestyle kept the normally attentive mother away from her family. After a few months, Evert knew she needed to be home to help her sons
as they grew up. “I was traveling a lot and just not around,” Evert says. “My kids are dynamos and needed their mom.” The couple split and the divorce was final in Dec. 2009. Since then,
Evert and her other ex-husband, former Olympic downhill ski champ Andy Mill, the father of her children, have grown closer. They now work together to share the lives of their sons. “Things
are back to normal, and my sons are my first priority,” says Evert.