Basketball star Brittney Griner has filed for divorce from her wife who fought to free her from a Russian prison.
The Connecticut Sun center, 35, has filed documents in a Georgia court indicating that her marriage to Cherelle, 34, is “irretrievably broken,” according to a filing obtained by The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. The court document stated that the couple got married in 2018 but have been separated since July 24.
The WNBA star is seeking “joint legal and physical custody” of their two-year-old son, Bash. Griner also asked for “an equitable division of all marital assets” and said she “should be awarded her separate, nonmarital property, including but not limited to inherited property as well as premarital property.”
The couple made headlines in 2022 after Griner was detained by Russian authorities for carrying nearly empty vape pens containing hash oil, a concentrated cannabis extract, while en route to join her team UMMC Ekaterinburg.
“On February 15, I left Phoenix in a frenzy, my heart of [my wife],” she wrote in her memoir Coming Home. “Three hellish days later, just before dawn, I lost my freedom, my peace, my life as I’d known it.”
Weed is illegal in Russia. Griner was found guilty on drug-related charges and received a nine-year sentence.
Cherelle, a lawyer, publicly lobbied for her wife’s release.
“[Brittney] wrote me one letter and was like, ‘Babe, I know you wanna go down right now but like, don’t just yet,’” she told Good Morning America in May 2022. “I won’t go down until she’s back... Every single day matters for me to be sound, for me to be alert, for me to be attentive, to make sure that she comes back.”
Ten months after she was detained, Griner was released through a prisoner swap for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Griner was married to former WNBA player Glory Johnson for just 28 days in 2015. They share twin daughters, Ava Simone and Solei Diem.
Griner and Johnson were arrested and charged in 2015 after a fight at home turned into a physical altercation. They were suspended for seven games and Griner pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
