The WNBA and women’s soccer worlds are in collective mourning.
On Friday, Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe announced the shocking end of their 10-year relationship in a joint statement posted by Togethxr.
The statement reads as follows:
“There really is no smooth or easy way to share this news. After a lot of thought, we’ve made the decision to separate as a couple.
This hasn’t been an easy decision, but it’s one we’ve made together, with so much love, respect, and care for each other. We’ve shared a whole life over the last decade, through big moments and in quiet ones, and that is something we’ll always carry with us.
We are so grateful to this incredible community that has held us up, welcomed us in, and supported us exactly as we are. So many of you have reminded us, again and again, why loving out loud matters.
Getting to create ‘A Touch More: The Podcast’ and build a network around it has been a tremendous joy. The conversations, the laughter, the connection — it means more than we can put into words. While this chapter of doing the podcast together is ending, what we’ve built with you isn’t.
Thank you for being with us through all of it, it means the world to us.
With so much love,
Megan & Sue”
Bird and Rapinoe met at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but they did not share their relationship until Bird publicly came out as gay in 2017. They posed together for ESPN The Magazine’s famed “Body Issue” in 2018, and they announced their engagement on Instagram in October 2020.
Bird and Rapinoe launched their A Touch More production company in December 2022, and their podcast by the same name was an extension of their viral Instagram Live sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
Bird was a first-ballot inductee into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame last year. The iconic point guard won two national titles at UConn before going No. 1 overall to the Seattle Storm in the 2002 WNBA Draft. Bird spent her entire career in Seattle, winning four WNBA championships, before retiring in 2022. She also won five Olympic gold medals.
Rapinoe, who retired from professional soccer after the 2023 NWSL season, is a U.S. women’s national team legend. She debuted for the USWNT in July 2006. Across 203 caps, she netted 63 goals and recorded 73 assists, which both rank in the top 10 in USWNT history.
Rapinoe’s iconic career hit its apex when she won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which the USWNT won, and earned the coveted Ballon d’Or that year. Overall, Rapinoe won two World Cups (2015, ’19) and one Olympic gold medal (2012).
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