Brittney and Cherelle Griner.
(Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)WNBA star Brittney Griner and woman Cherelle Grinner are expecting their first child.
They announced the news in a joint Instagram post on Saturday, April 13, along with a photo of the couple holding hands next to an ultrasound scan of their child. “I can’t believe in less than three months we’ll be meeting our favorite person 🤍 #BabyGrinerComingSoon #July2024,” Cherelle, 31, wrote in the caption, hinting that the due date will be sometime in July.
Brittney, 33, and Cherelle first met over a decade ago when they both attended Baylor University from 2009 to 2013. Although 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 a year after Brittney was released from a Russian prison after being arrested at a Moscow airport on drug charges in February 2022 while playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason. Russian authorities claimed the professional basketball player was smuggling hash oil into the country in her luggage. News of her arrest only became public weeks later.
In May 2022, the US State Department declared that Brittney had been “unjustly detained” and began negotiations for her release.
Griner pleaded guilty in a Russian court on July 7, 2022 and was initially sentenced to nine years in prison. The Phoenix Mercury player was released on December 8, 2022 after her release was negotiated in exchange for a convicted arms dealer.
“It scares me because when you watch movies, sometimes those situations don’t end well,” Cherelle said 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 has felt “like a movie” since her wife’s incarceration.
“In no world have I ever done that [think] Our president and the president of another nation would sit down and discuss my wife’s freedom,” Cherelle explained. “And even though everyone gives me a different definition of what BG is, it seems to me like she’s a hostage.”
She added: “I’m sitting there wondering, ‘Are we going to get her back?’ Will I ever see my wife again? For example, what happens [next]?’ The fact that everything is so unprecedented and changeable is, I think, a really good word. I feel like I hear something new every day, and so it’s just terrifying.”
After returning to the United States, Brittney returned to the basketball court in February 2023. A year later, she announced her memoir titled Return home.
“Ultimately, the book is also a story about how my family, my faith and the support of millions who worked to save me helped me endure a nightmare,” she said in a statement.
Return home will be released on May 7th.