Brittney Griner & Her Wife Cherelle Open Up About Their IVF Journey
And how Brittney Griner’s 2022 detainment in Russia impacted their plans.
Brittney Griner and her wife Cherelle, are opening up about the difficulties they faced in becoming parents, thanks in part to Brittney’s 2022 detainment in Russia.
The couple recently spoke with Skylar Diggins and Cassidy Hubbarth for their ANDMOM podcast, during which they discussed their IVF journey. A big part of that process involved coordinating their schedules and trying to find time during Brittney’s off-season in the WNBA.
“Once you look at that process, and you’ve never done it before, we sat back, and we were like, okay, which part of this process do we want to make sure we’re together on?” Cherelle said.
They ultimately landed on the window after Cherelle had graduated from law school. Unfortunately, just a few months before that was to take place, their lives took a turn. Brittney was detained in Russia that February after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her bag.
By December of the same year, Brittney was released and returned to the U.S., but there was a lot to think about before simply jumping back into the process.
“I don’t even know if we both were in a soft place when we decided to still continue with our plan to have Bash,” Cherelle said. “So I just wanted to reduce as much stress as possible, because we were both going through so much at the time.”
The couple did ultimately resume their IVF journey and welcomed their son, Bash, in July 2024, all of which they talked about in more detail during the podcast. Most importantly, it’s something they were able to do together after Brittney’s release.
“I did not want to do that with anybody else. I have a great village, and anybody could have filled in if I would have called them, but I was like, no, I want this to be us,” Cherelle said.
“I wanted to be a part of it, too,” Brittney admitted. “I wanted to be there every step of the way.”
