Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle Griner are celebrating the arrival of their first baby.
Brittney, 33, shared that she and Cherelle, 32, welcomed a baby boy on July 8, weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces, during an interview with CBS Sports on Friday, July 19.
“That’s my man. He is amazing,” Brittney said, noting she’ll be called “pops,” while smiling from ear to ear. “They said as soon as you see them, everything that you thought mattered just goes out the window. That’s literally what happened.”
Brittney continued that it “sucks” she’ll have to leave her newborn as she goes to compete during WNBA All-Star weekend in Phoenix, Arizona, before heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics for her third time representing Team USA.
“He will understand,” Brittney said before joking about how obsessed she is with her son, quipping, “My whole phone has turned into him now.”
The WNBA star and the attorney announced the pregnancy in April. “Can’t believe we’re less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being,” the couple captioned a joint Instagram post, adding “#BabyGrinerComingSoon” and “#July2024.” In the photo, they held hands beside sonogram images of their baby.
Brittney and Cherelle met when they were both students at Baylor University from 2009 to 2013, although they did not begin dating until years later. They tied the knot in June 2019, one year after getting engaged.
In February 2022, Brittney made headlines when she was arrested on drug charges at a Moscow airport while playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason. Russian authorities claimed that she smuggled hash oil into the country in her luggage. Three months later, the U.S. State Department insisted that Brittney had been “wrongfully detained.”
In July 2022, Brittney pleaded guilty in a Russian court and was sentenced to nine years in prison. She was later released and returned to the U.S. in December 2022 in an exchange with Russia for a convicted arms dealer.
Amid Brittney’s imprisonment, Cherelle advocated for her wife’s freedom. “It terrifies me because when you watch movies, sometimes those situations don’t end well,” Cherelle said on CBS Mornings in October 2022. “Sometimes they never get their person back.”
“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,” she continued. “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
At the time, Cherelle feared that a negotiation for Brittney’s return would not be possible. “I’m sitting there like, ‘Do we get her back? Do I ever get to see my wife again? Like, what happens [next]?’” she explained. “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.”
Upon her release, Brittney broke her silence on her detainment. “It feels so good to be home!” she wrote via Instagram in December 2022. “The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.”
