Brittney Griner seeks divorce from wife who championed her release from Russian captivity

This story originally appeared on Them.

WNBA superstar Brittney Griner is now separated from her wife, Cherelle, and wants a divorce, according to court records filed in Atlanta on Thursday and first reported by TMZ.

Attorney Cherelle Griner of Atlanta stood by her wife when she was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison in 2022, Together they have been raising a son named Bash Raymond Griner, born on July 8, 2024.

According to TMZ, Brittney Griner is seeking joint legal custody of their son and asked the court to determine how much child support to award, if any. The couple tied the knot in June 2018 and have been married eight years. They met at Baylor College, as Out reported earlier this year, and hid their relationship at first, then broke up and eventually rekindled their romance.

The report lists July 24, 2026 as their date of separation. The basketball icon who currently plays for the Connecticut Sun said in the filing their marriage is "irretrievably broken," according to TMZ.

The couple appeared together as recently as January in a documentary, The Brittney Griner Story, which chronicled Griner's saga of being detained in Russia for traveling with two mostly-empty THC cartridges, her unfair trial, her nine months of imprisonment, and Cherelle’s fight to bring her home. Griner was returned home in December 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia.

Following her release and the birth of their son, Brittney Griner said playing for Team USA in the Olympic Games in 2024 meant “100% more” than her previous two Olympic experiences. She told NBC News how proud she was to be playing for the country that “literally saved my life.”

We reached out to representatives for both Cherelle and Brittney Griner for comment and did not receive a response as of press time.

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Brittney Griner seeks divorce from wife who championed her release from Russian captivity

The divorce petition says the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” per TMZ.

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Brittney Griner seeks divorce from wife who championed her release from Russian captivity

The divorce petition says the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” per TMZ.

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