WNBA star Brittney Griner has filed to end her eight-year marriage to Cherelle Griner in a Georgia court, a split that closes a chapter defined by an international detention crisis and a very public fight to bring Griner home.
Griner filed the divorce petition in Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, ABC News reported, citing court documents the outlet obtained. The petition states the marriage "is irretrievably broken" with "no hope of reconciliation." The couple separated on July 24, 2026, just one week before the filing became public.
Griner, now 35 and playing for the Connecticut Sun, married Cherelle in June 2018. The petition seeks joint physical custody of their two-year-old son, Bash, who was born in July 2024. It also asks for an "equitable division" of all marital debts and assets, described in the filing as "both real and personal, tangible and intangible."
The divorce lands four years after Brittney Griner's detention in Russia dominated headlines and turned Cherelle into one of the most visible advocates in the country. Russian authorities took Brittney into custody at a Moscow airport in 2022, accusing her of possessing vaping cartridges containing hashish oil, an illegal substance under Russian law. She spent 10 months detained and was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison.
Cherelle mounted a relentless public campaign for her wife's release. In a May 2022 appearance on "Good Morning America," she made her position clear:
"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."
Brittney was released in December 2022 as part of a prisoner swap. On December 16 of that year, she posted on Instagram acknowledging the ordeal and the support she received:
"It feels so good to be home! The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help."
Less than four years later, the marriage that survived an international crisis could not survive whatever came next.
An attorney representing Brittney Griner offered a brief statement to ABC News but declined to elaborate on the circumstances behind the split.
"This is a matter we hope the parties can resolve privately. There is no further comment at this time."
The attorney's name was not disclosed. ABC News said it reached out to Cherelle Griner for comment but did not report receiving a response.
The couple first met at Baylor University, the New York Post reported, before marrying in June 2018. Breitbart noted this is Griner's second divorce, adding further context to the filing.
No financial figures appear in the publicly available details of the petition. The filing does not specify support provisions beyond the request for joint custody of Bash. The case number and docket details have not been made public.
Cherelle Griner, herself an attorney, became a household name by standing in front of cameras and pleading for her wife's freedom while Brittney sat in a Russian detention facility. That public loyalty made her a sympathetic figure across the political spectrum. The divorce filing offers no window into what changed, only the legal language that the marriage had no hope left.
Families endure what they endure. Courts sort out the rest. What happens next between the Griners is, as their own attorney put it, a matter they hope to resolve in private, a reasonable request in a story that has already played out under far too many spotlights.
