Brittney Griner files for divorce from wife of 7 years who fought for her release from Russia

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WNBA player Brittney Griner has filed for divorce from her wife of seven years, Cherelle, court records show.

Cherelle was a vocal voice during Griner’s Russian imprisonment, constantly pleading with U.S. government officials to bring the former Atlanta Dream star home.

When Griner returned home in late 2022, she thanked then-President Joe Biden for his efforts.

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Brittney Griner and Cherelle Griner at an event

“Over the last 9 months you have been so privy to one of the darkest moments of my life and so today I’m just standing here overwhelmed with emotions but the most important emotion that I have right now is just sincere gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration,” Cherelle said with Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris by her side.

Cherelle thanked several members of the Biden administration, Griner’s former Phoenix Mercury, the WNBPA and Brittney’s agency for doing all they could to keep the WNBA superstar in the spotlight after she was detained, sentenced and then transferred to a Russian penal colony in the final moments of her detention.

“Today, my family is whole. But as you all are aware,” Cherelle added. “There are so many other families who are not whole. BG’s not here to say this, but I will gladly speak on her behalf and say that BG and I will remain committed to the work on getting every American home, including Paul (Whelan) whose family is in our hearts today as we celebrate BG being home. We do understand that there’s still people out here who are enduring what I endured the last 9 months of missing, tremendously, their loved ones.”

The Griners married in 2019 and share a son, but the WNBA star, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, said the marriage was “irretrievably broken.”

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Griner was freed in a prisoner exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. She was arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow on Feb. 17, 2022, after Russian authorities said she had vape cartridges with cannabis oil inside her luggage. On Aug. 4 of that year, Griner was given a nine-year sentence after pleading guilty, arguing that she had been prescribed cannabis for her pain and inadvertently packed it. Her sentence was upheld in October, and she was later transferred to a penal colony.

Bout is known as the “Merchant of Death” and the possible swap for him was floated back in May. He was in the middle of a 25-year sentence in federal prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to kill Americans relating to the support of a Colombian terrorist organization.

Griner wrote in her memoir that she expected Cherelle to get a divorce if she had actually stayed in Russia for her entire prison sentence.

“My basketball career would be over. I’d be in my early forties and out of shape, would have to find a new way to provide for my wife. And Relle. She assured me she’d wait, but ten years was ridiculous,” Griner wrote, via Complex.

“I went through so many emotions being locked up, and just thinking about nine years,” she continued. “We planned on having kids, and doing all these amazing things together, and now I’m thinking, ‘Is that going to happen? How can I ask her to wait?’”

This would be Griner’s second divorce. Griner married then-fellow WNBA star Glory Johnson in May 2015, despite both being arrested on charges of domestic violence against one another just three weeks prior. Johnson announced the following months she was pregnant via IVF and a sperm donor, and Griner filed for divorce the next day. That divorce was finalized June 2016.