Is Brittney Griner Married?

Publish date: 2024-07-09

Brittney Yevette Griner is married. The American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women’s national basketball team is the wife of Cherelle Watson.

The 31-year-old native Houstonian’s current marriage with Cherelle Watson is her second marriage. Cherelle made headlines recently because of the role she played following Griner’s recent release from detention by the Russian government after 9 months of captivity. She became a topic of interest as many of the WNBA star’s fans want to know her more personally.

Summary of Brittney Griner’s Biography 

Does Brittney Griner Have a Wife or a Husband?

Brittney Griner has a wife and not a husband. It is no news that the two-time WNBA scoring champion is a lesbian, and she was, and is the male of both her past and current relationships. She is what a section of society will describe as a sporty lesbian because she is an athlete and does mostly what the male gender does.

It could be recalled that the 2014 WNBA Champion came out as a lesbian in 2013 when a Sports Illustrated reporter unexpectedly asked her about her sexuality in an interview. The interesting part about the interview is how straight to the point Griner was about being lesbian. She said she never hid it, so there was no official “coming-out campaign”.

Griner has never really addressed the question about her sexuality to the public before, as she has never been asked, nor has she denied it. So it became news that period when she affirmatively talked about it. Regardless of the outcome then or now, Brittney Griner is out and she has much love from her fans for being who she is. One person’s love she currently enjoys is that of her lesbian wife, Cherelle Griner.

Cherelle recently became famous following the release of Brittney from custody in Russia. It is recalled that Brittney was detained in Russia earlier in 2022 due to a drug-related case (she was charged with drug trafficking and sentenced to nine years in prison). She was released by Russia in a prisoner swap after months of government intervention and the role played by her spouse, Cherelle Griner.

Who Is Brittney Griner’s Wife Cherelle Watson?

Cherelle Griner (Born Cherelle Watson, July 1, 1992) is a 31 American mathematics teacher and entrepreneur better known as the wife of Brittney Griner. Cherelle was born on July 1, 1992, to African American parents in little rock Arkansas United states.

Although she was given the name Cherelle Watson at birth, she later took the last name ‘Griner’ after getting married in 2019. She attended a nearby private school to complete her high school education after growing up in Arkansas. She then enrolled at Baylor University and majored in political science and government while also pursuing a minor in family and child studies.

She received a bachelor of applied sciences from the university. She continued her education at the esteemed North Carolina University School of Law because she had always been passionate about being a lawyer. Cherelle is presently employed as a teacher at an unnamed school.

She is private about her personal life and where she works because of her celebrity status as the wife of a popular WNBA player. That status, however, has offered her the opportunity to use the fame attached to fight for the release of her spouse while she was held by the Russians.

Meanwhile, Cherelle is a social media influencer and has amassed over 120k followers on Instagram where she regularly posts. Her exact field of business as an entrepreneur is yet to be known

How Did Brittney Griner and Cherelle Griner Meet?

The connection between Cherelle Griner and Brittney Griner started in college when they were both enrolled at Baylor University. Brittney attended college from 2009 to 2013, while Cherelle started in 2010. As a result, Brittney attended college one year before her wife.

Despite having met in college, Brittney and Cherelle were only friends for a while before falling in love. Nothing was known about Cherelle’s love life when they weren’t together, but Brittney’s troubled marriage to another WNBA star named Glory Johnson frequently made headlines for the wrong reasons.

The chemistry that brought Griner and Johnson together quickly faded and the relationship ended up in a divorce after just a year of getting married. Following the end of her tumultuous marriage and relationship with Glory Johnson in 2016, Brittney began a romantic relationship with Cherelle. They dated for a while before getting engaged in August 2018.

The engagement lasted almost a year before they got married in June 2019. The two celebrated their 3rd marriage anniversary in 2021, expressing how much they love each other and how they have been through thick and thin together. Unlike her first marriage, Brittney Griner’s second marriage has remained relatively calm and free from controversies.

Who Is Brittney Griner’s First Wife, Glory Johnson?

Glory Johnson, born Glory Bassey Johnson in Colorado Spring, on July 27, 1990, is a 31 year-old American basketball player for the Turkish club, Beşiktaş. Although Glory is very famous as a female basketball player, she is sometimes known as the ex-lover of Brittney Griner.

An African American, Glory is one of the five children her parents’ has. She also holds a Montenegrin passport and has represented the Montenegro women’s national basketball team internationally.

Her parents are of Nigerian ancestry and they raised her and her siblings in Tennessee. While it is known that Glory’s father, Bassey Johnson Udofolt, is a petrochemical engineer who attended the University of Birmingham in the UK, information about what her mother, Mercy Bassey Johnson, does for a living is not known.

The basketball player attended Webb High School for her senior year before moving to the University of Tennessee to attend college where she played for the Lady Vols. The 6-foot-3 forward reached 2,000 career points on September 16 and was named an All-Star in 2013 and 2014.

The Turkish-based basketball player claims not to be a lesbian despite having been married to one before. She made it known that her encounter with Griner changed her life as she fell in love with an individual and not the gender.

Are Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson Still Married?

No! Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson are no longer married. Brittney and Glory got married on May 8, 2015, but heir marriage ended as quickly as it happened as they got separated in June of the same year before they finally divorced in June 2016.

The ex-couple first met at a Basket Ball camp in Las Vegas and after taking a liking for one another, they began dating. The exact period when they met is unknown and not much has been disclosed regarding their relationship before they were married. Although Brittney and Glory were not that open about the relationship, they kept the flame burning during their dating period.

They got engaged at a party on August 14, 2014, and immediately began planning for the wedding to the disapproval of their parents, especially their fathers. Nine years after their engagement the ex-couple, against all, odds got married.

Their wedding reception took place at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs in Pheonix with their friends and loved ones in attendance except for their fathers who were not in support of the union. Their marriage was characterized by a lot of irregularities and was shaky from the very start.

A Shaky Relationship That Led To A Marriage and a Quick Divorce.

The media feasted on the relationship between Brittney and Glory, in summary, many highlighted that it was not meant to be judging by their numerous issues. Not particularly clear when the issue started, the conflict between the lovers got heated when they both got involved in a fight in their Goodyear, Arizona home, sustaining minor injuries. They got arrested and charged with assault before their marriage on April 22, 2015.

Following their arrests, the WNBA suspended them both for seven games after Griner pled guilty to disorderly conduct charges and she was made to complete 26 weeks of domestic violence counseling. Although they continued with the relationship, Brittney claimed that she was pressured into marrying Johnson. However, when Brittney found out that Glory was pregnant, she then decided to end the union by annulling it in court.

Additionally, she stated that she was not involved in the events that led to her partner’s pregnancy and that Johnson texted an ex-boyfriend of hers. She appeared to desire the marriage to be dissolved for the reasons listed above. However, a judge denied her request, leaving the couple with little choice except to file for divorce.

During the divorce process a year later, issues of the children were brought up as part of the divorce settlement. After many inquiries, Brittney later admitted that she was involved in the process, but was under pressure. The divorce process was finalized in June 2016 and Griner was asked to pay $2,516 dollars monthly child support without any spousal support as requested by Glory Johnson.

Does Brittney Griner Have Kids?

Yes! Brittney Griner has kids with her ex-wife Glory Johnson. Brittney’s short-term marriage with ex-partner Glory was blessed with two children before they decided to go their separate ways. The two children are female twins and were born prematurely ( at 24 weeks) by glory after conception. Griner had even told some media that they didn’t think both girls would survive.

Ava Simone and Solei Diem, twin daughters of Brittney and her ex-wife Johnson, are six years old. The girls were conceived through In-Vitro fertilization using a donor sperm. When they were born in October, months before their due date of February, they weighed only 1 lb. 7 oz. (652 grams).

As stated above, the girls were conceived through IVF, however, it was a process that Brittney was not in tune with. She had openly spoken out about how she felt regarding the pregnancy a day after when her ex-wife had announced that she was pregnant. In her own words, Brittney said she has no biological connection to the children.

Many reports have it that Brittney might have said so because she wanted to totally disconnect from her ex-spouse at the time of the whole façade. But her ex-spouse having a pregnancy in her name will still be the link connecting both parties still. Well, the children are still a constant reminder of their now-dead relationship.

Brittney’s Relationship With The Twins

Brittney Griner is currently co-parenting her twin girls, Ava Simone and Solei Diem, with her ex-partner, Glory Johnson. Although she has vehemently said that she does not have a connection with the twin, she has been paying for their support as instructed by the court.

With Brittney forced to pay child support for the twins, this would mean she still has a say in the decision-making and upbringing of the children. She may not want the children, but they are still legitimately hers with Johnson. It remains to be seen if she would eventually take back the children into her life.

On her part, Glory Johnson had been very excited about having both girls. She sees them as her blessings and had wasted no time telling her fans on Instagram that both babies were doing fine. It can be recalled that the court gave her custody of the girls and compelled her ex-wife to pay monthly child support for their upkeep.

In her words, Johnson said that although the girls were born earlier than expected, she had no worries because the babies were “fighters” just like her. She also made it known that the children’s birth was not a mistake from God, but his grace upon her life, and hoped everything will work out for the greater good.

On their fifth birthday, Johnson shared an Instagram post calling the twins her heart and soul, love, life, and reason.

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