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Louise Thomas
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Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle have welcomed their first baby.
In a July 19 interview with CBS Sports, the 33-year-old basketball player revealed that she and her wife Cherelle, 32, welcomed a baby boy on July 8. As she smiled ear-to-ear, Griner added that she’d be called “pops.”
“That’s my man. He is amazing,” Brittney said, adding that their son weighed 7 pounds and 8 ounces. “They said as soon as you see them, everything that you thought mattered just goes out the window. That’s literally what happened.”
When asked about having to leave her newborn to compete during WNBA All-Star weekend in Phoenix, and later the 2024 Paris Olympics to represent Team USA for the third time, Brittney admitted feeling mixed emotions.
“It kind of sucks because I have to leave, but at the same time, he will understand,” Brittney said, adding that she’ll have plenty of photos of him to look at while in Paris. “My whole phone has turned into him now.”
In April, the couple announced the pregnancy on social media. They wrote in a caption: “Can’t believe we’re less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being.”
The WNBA star and the attorney first met as students at Baylor University in Texas, which they attended between 2009 and 2013.
“I will never forget the day I met you at Baylor in the sub area!” the WNBA star wrote on Instagram in June 2020. “You tapped me on my shoulder and told me I took your milkshake (still up for debate lol) and I was immediately blown away at your beauty!”
Although the two didn’t start dating until two years later, Brittney remembered it was love at first sight. “You had no idea but I knew you were the one for me baby. You stuck by my side at the lowest and at the highest!”
The couple have been through a tough few years after Griner was detained in Russia for 10 months on drug charges in 2022. She was eventually released in a prisoner swap for international arms dealer Viktor Bout on December 8, 2022.
At the time, President Joe Biden signed off on the trade, which occurred in the United Arab Emirates. On X, formerly known as Twitter, he posted: “Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home.”
Cherelle recalled seeing Brittney after her detainment to People.
“I had thought about that moment a thousand times, and I thought I would be full of tears,” Cherelle told the outlet. “But I was overwhelmingly happy. It was the first time I was able to finally exhale.”
