WNBA star Candace Parker announced in an Instagram post that her wife is expecting their first child together.
Tuesday’s post by Parker, 35, a two-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medal winner, also congratulated Anna Petrakova, 37, on their two-year wedding anniversary, which is believed to be the first time she has publicly addressed her marriage on social media, ESPN reported.
“Two years ago, I got to marry my best friend in front of our close family and friends. My heart could have exploded,” Parker, who currently plays for the Chicago Sky, wrote on Instagram. “I cried like a baby ... To know me or you is to know our love. This journey hasn’t been easy. I am proud of us and what we have built and who we have grown to become both individually and together.”
The baby will be Parker’s second child. Her first, 12-year-old Lailaa, was born to her and her former husband, Sheldon Williams, in May 2009, according to ESPN. Her birth came a year after the women’s basketball great, who won national titles at the University of Tennessee in 2007 and 2008, was drafted No. 1 overall by the Los Angeles Sparks, USA Today reported. She was the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year and league MVP in 2008.
Lailaa “is pumped to be a big sister,” Parker wrote on Instagram.
Petrakova played basketball for the Russian national team in the 2012 Summer Olympics, ESPN reported. She also competed professionally for UMMC Ekaterinburg when Parker was on that Russian team. She played for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Parker won her second WNBA MVP award in 2013 and her first league title in 2016. She won her second WNBA title this year after she signed with Chicago, leading the Sky past Phoenix for the franchise’s first championship. Parker became the first woman to appear on an NBA 2K video game cover and launched her own shoe brand, USA Today reported.
Having another child is tops on Parker’s list.
“We’ve always dreamed of growing our family ... it’s surreal that we now have a baby on the way,” Parker wrote on Instagram. “I can’t wait to embark on this next chapter in life with you.”
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