WNBA star Brittney Griner has filed for divorce from her wife, Cherelle Griner, ending their eight-year marriage, according to court records filed Thursday in Atlanta.
The filing, first reported by TMZ, lists July 24 as the couple’s date of separation. According to the documents, Griner describes the marriage as “irretrievably broken.”
Brittney and Cherelle Griner married in June 2018 after reconnecting years after first meeting as students at Baylor University. The pair initially kept their relationship private before briefly separating and later finding their way back to one another.
Their relationship became widely known during Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia in 2022. After Russian authorities arrested the basketball star for traveling with two nearly empty THC vape cartridges, she was sentenced to nine years in prison. Throughout her detention, Cherelle became one of her most visible advocates, speaking publicly about the case and urging the U.S. government to secure her wife’s release.
After nearly 10 months in Russian custody, Griner returned to the United States in December 2022 as part of a high-profile prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia.
The couple’s journey was later documented in The Brittney Griner Story, which premiered earlier this year and chronicled Griner’s imprisonment, the international campaign to bring her home, and the couple’s path to parenthood.
Following her release and the birth of their son, Griner reflected on representing Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, telling NBC News the experience meant “100% more” than her previous Olympic appearances because she was competing for the country that had “literally saved my life.”
Neither Brittney nor Cherelle Griner has publicly commented on the divorce filing.
Photos courtesy of social media
