Women’s basketball legend Sue Bird and soccer player Megan Rapinoe have broken up after nearly ten years of dating. The couple announced the split in a joint Instagram post with their content studio, writing, “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,” the statement continued.
Bird, a WNBA superstar, retired in 2022 at age 41 with four championships under her belt, leaving the sport to continue building her managerial and media career. Rapinoe, a soccer icon, won two FIFA Women’s World Cups in 2015 and 2019 and retired from playing in the National Women’s Soccer League in 2023. The couple previously announced their engagement in 2020 following a birthday celebration for Bird in Antigua.
The couple currently host the women’s sports podcast A Touch More but in their breakup announcement, Bird and Rapinoe shared that it would be coming to an end. “We are so grateful to this incredible community that has held us up, welcomed us in, and supported us exactly as we are,” they wrote. “So many of you have reminded us, again and again, why loving out loud matters.”
In addition to being lesbian icons, Bird and Rapinoe have both continued to be power players in women’s sports following their respective retirements. They have also both used their platforms to defend the inclusion of transgender women in athletics, jointly slamming the International Olympic Committee's April ban on trans and intersex women as “hateful” and “horrible.”
“What’s being presented as, like, this huge issue — “we have to protect women!” — it’s not. What it is, is fearmongering,” Bird said at the time.
