Jessica Pegula may be a star in the world of tennis, but she’s hardly the only member of her family who’s obsessed with sports.

The 30-year-old athlete, who faces off against Aryna Sabalenka at the U.S. Open final on Sept. 7, is the daughter of Terry and Kim Pegula, the billionaire couple who own multiple professional sports teams, including the Buffalo Bills.

But her parents’ sky-high net worth doesn’t mean Jessica Pegula snacks on caviar between sets.

The Buffalo native, who’s the sixth-ranked player in the world, chuckled over “outrageous” rumors that say she arrives to her matches in a limousine at a press conference earlier this week.

“People think I have a butler, that I get chauffeured around, that I have a private limo, that I fly private everywhere,” she said, laughing before adding, “I’m definitely not like that.”

Just this week, Forbes estimated that Terry Pegula, who made his money through his oil and gas business, East Resources, has a net worth of $7.7 billion.

But the self-made billionaire and his wife know what it’s like to struggle from humble beginnings.

Terry Pegula comes from a Pennsylvania coal mining family and Kim Pegula, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, spent time in an orphanage as a child.

Read on to learn more about Terry and Kim Pegula.

Terry Pegula built his fortune through his gas and oil business

Terry Pegula was born into a coal mining family in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, according to The New York Times.

He graduated from Penn State University in 1973 with a degree in petroleum engineering and began his career as an employee of Getty Oil Co. in Victoria, Texas, according to a bio on the NFL website.

He borrowed $7,500 from family and friends to purchase land in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation that stretches between West Virginia and New York. From there he launched his gas and oil company, East Resources, according to the Ocala Star Banner.

In 2010, he sold the bulk of the company to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion, according to Forbes.

The couple own the Buffalo Bills and other sports teams

In 2011, Terry and Kim Pegula bought the Buffalo Sabres hockey team, according to the Buffalo Bill website. The couple also purchased the NLL Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks and the AHL Rochester Americans.

Three years later, the pair realized a “lifelong dream” when they bought the Buffalo Bills.

The deal made Kim Pegula the first female president of both an NHL and NFL team.

Kim Pegula spent time in an orphanage before being adopted as a child

Though she’s now one of the most powerful women in the NFL, Kim Pegula’s life wasn’t always so glamorous.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, she spent time in an orphanage before being adopted by American parents at age 5, according to her bio on the Buffalo Bills website.

She graduated from Houghton College in 1991 with a degree in communications and worked as a hostess as McDonalds before beginning her professional career at her future husband’s company.

The couple met at a restaurant in 1991

Kim Pegula told the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper that she and Terry Pegula met at a restaurant in 1991.

Kim Pegula recalled that she and her college roommate planned to travel to Alaska to work in a fishing camp after they graduated from college in 1991, but fate got in the way.

To save for the trip, the two pals filled out applications for employment at the Old Library Restaurant in Olean, New York.

Terry Pegula and several of his employees from East Resources just happened to be at the restaurant eating lunch the day the two women arrived. He and his future wife struck up a conversation and exchanged contact information.

Weeks later, the pair went on their first date. And then another, and another. Eventually, Terry Pegula mentioned a job opening at his company. “He said, ‘Hey, I can use somebody at East,’ but I think he made that up,” Kim Pegula told the publication, with a laugh.

“He said, ‘I do investor relations and if you’ve got communication, if that’s your background, I don’t do that very well. I just know how to drill oil and gas wells, so maybe you can do that.’

“I said, ‘OK, I’ll do that for now and wait to find out about the other job,’ and there came a point where I thought, ‘Hmm, maybe I don’t want the other job.'”

After a year of dating, Terry Pegula asked for Kim Pegula’s parents’ permission to marry her. Kim Pegula shared her parents’ hesitations with the Democrat & Chronicle — mainly, that Terry Pegula was 18 years her senior, divorced and had two children from his first marriage.

“They of course gave me a speech, one about being involved with your boss, one about the age difference, divorced, stepchildren, all the things as a parent you don’t want your child to go through if they don’t have to,” Kim said. “Once they said their piece, I said, ‘OK, I understand,’ but it didn’t matter. After that, they never said a word about that.”

They are the parents of five children

Terry and Kim Pegula share five children: Michael, Laura, Jessica, Kelly and Matthew, according to couple’s individual bios on the NFL website.

Jessica Pegula says her parents have helped her to achieve as an athlete

In September 2021, Jessica Pegula appeared alongside her mom on the Bills Pod Squad podcast, where she credited her parents, in part, with her athletic success.

“Dad and I are like oil and water on the tennis court — it does not mix well,” she said, laughing. “But he definitely always pushed me to do better. To work hard, always work hard, you can always outwork somebody, all that type of stuff. He’s very old school.”

She added that her mom has helped her with her staying fit behind the scenes.

“You were the more off-court, get healthy. Like the diet, the recovery, you know, the training and stuff like that.”

Kim Pegula suffered a cardiac arrest in 2022

Kim Pegula suffered a cardiac arrest in June 2022 shortly after Jessica Pegula competed in the French Open.

In February 2023, the tennis pro wrote about the incident in a personal essay published in The Players Tribune. She revealed the event happened while her mother slept. Luckily, her sister Kelly was staying overnight with her parents. Kelly performed CPR on their mom to keep her alive before paramedics arrived.

At the time, Jessica Pegula said her mom was “improving every day” but was “dealing with significant expressive aphasia and significant memory issues.”

“She can read, write, and understand pretty well, but she has trouble finding the words to respond,” shared the athlete, who revealed that her mom had begun watching her matches on television since the incident whereas she was previously too nervous to tune in.

In June 2023, Jessica Pegula told The New York Times that she believed her focus on her game was helping her mom to recover.

“She wants to watch me on TV,” said the pro. “I think that inspires her in her recovery, as well, to see me out there still playing.”

“She wouldn’t want me doing anything else,” she later added. “I think she would want me to keep winning and to keep competing and putting myself out there.”