Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson Expecting First Child
A month after tying the knot, the WNBA’s Glory Johnson and Brittney Griner have announced they are expecting their first child.
Johnson, a two-time All-Star for the Tulsa Shock, broke the news Thursday, posting a photo to her Instagram account that depicts a bun in the oven — or rather, an oven-shaped cake. “#SUCCESS #BLESSED #WelcomeToTheJohnsonGrinerFamily,” she captioned the image.
“It has always been a dream of mine to start a family with someone I love,” Johnson said in a statement released by the team ahead of the Shock’s home opener on Friday.
Courtesy Glory Johnson
“Being a professional athlete that plays year-round, there is never a perfect time to get pregnant without putting my career on hold. The entire process, from learning our fertility options, to making sacrifices necessary nine months before the child is born, is merely preparing me to become a great wife and an even better mother.”
She adds, “Right now, I not only have my health to worry about, but also the health of this little one resting inside of me. Rest assured I will be back next season, stronger and more ready to play than ever!”
Indeed the couple, both 24, has been talking with fertility specialists about planning a family, according to Johnson’s comments published Tuesday by Sports Illustrated.
“A lot of people know we were considering the process — a lot of friends, anyway,” she told the magazine. “But with two women, you know, it’s not like you can get somebody pregnant overnight. It’s a very huge process.”
Johnson and Griner, center for the three-time champion Phoenix Mercury, were married May 8 at a Phoenix mountaintop resort, nine months after announcing their engagement.
Just two weeks before the ceremony, on April 22, they made additional headlines after an argument at their Goodyear, Arizona, home led to a 911 call and arrests for assault and disorderly conduct.
Both players were suspended for seven games apiece by the WNBA, which called the behavior of both equally “unacceptable.” An attorney for Johnson, Howard Snader, suggested that Johnson was the target, according to SI.
“If I’m being fought,” Johnson told the magazine, “I’m not gonna just sit back … There’s probably a better way to handle it. But at the time … You’re just thinking of protecting yourself and doing what you need to stand up for yourself.”
For her part, Griner issued a statement through her attorney after the incident, stating, “It is never okay for an argument to turn physical. This will never happen again, and I take my relationship and my responsibility as a role model seriously.”
Said Johnson: “I’m not going to throw Brittney under the bus … and she’s not going to throw me under the bus … [but] what the [WNBA] did not say in the statements they released was that I pled not guilty … So for them to release a statement saying that we were both guilty in the situation, it’s not right. It’s not correct … Brittney pled guilty … Brittney understands why I pled not guilty, and I understand why she pled guilty … she was even willing to speak to whoever she needed to, to get the point across.”
She also told the magazine: “A lot of people were telling us that we rushed the wedding. But if we had done it Brittney’s way, we would have gone somewhere without telling anybody, and we would have done it way before anybody knew — which is something that I really like about her. She doesn’t care what people think.”
Crimson & Clover Photography
— Jeff Truesdell
Follow @jhtruesdell
Congrats!!!
