Brittney and Cherelle Griner. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
WNBA star Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle Griner are expecting their first child.
They announced the news via a joint Instagram post on Saturday, April 13, alongside a photo of the couple holding hands next to an ultrasound of their child. “Can’t believe we’re less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being 🤍 #BabyGrinerComingSoon #July2024,” Cherelle, 31, wrote in the caption, indicating that the due date will be sometime in July.
Brittney, 33, and Cherelle first met over a decade ago while both attending Baylor University from 2009 to 2013. Though they didn’t start dating until years later, the duo officially tied the knot in June 2019 just a year after Brittney popped the question.
The couple’s pregnancy news comes one year after Brittney was released from a Russian prison after being arrested on drug charges at a Moscow airport in February 2022 while playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason. Russian authorities claimed that the professional basketball player had smuggled hash oil into the country in her luggage. News of her arrest did not reach the public until weeks later.
In May 2022, the U.S. State Department stated that Brittney had been “wrongfully detained” and began negotiating her release.
Griner pled guilty in a Russian court on July 7, 2022, and was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison. The Phoenix Mercury player was released on December 8, 2022, after her freedom was negotiated in exchange for a convicted arms dealer.
“It terrifies me, because when you watch movies, sometimes those situations don’t end well,” Cherelle told Gayle King during an interview that aired on CBS Mornings in October 2022. “Sometimes they never get their person back.” She added that her life had felt “like a movie” since her wife had been detained.
“In no world did I ever [think] our president and a foreign nation’s president would be sitting down having to discuss the freedom of my wife,” Cherelle explained. “And so to me, as much as everybody’s telling me a different definition of what BG is, it feels to me as if she’s a hostage.”
She added, “I’m sitting there like, ‘Do we get her back? Do I ever get to see my wife again? Like, what happens [next]?’ The fact that everything is so unprecedented and everything is, like, changeable, I think is a really good word. I feel like every day I’m hearing something new, and so it’s just, it’s terrifying.”
After coming back to the U.S., Brittney returned to the basketball court in February 2023. One year later, she announced her memoir, titled Coming Home.
“Ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare,” she said in a statement.
Coming Home will be released on May 7.
