WBNA star Maya Moore and husband Jonathan Irons are parents!
On Tuesday, the couple made the announcement on Good Morning America, sharing that their son, Jonathan Houston Irons Jr., was born in February of this year.
In a jubilant Instagram caption further sharing the news, Moore told fans, “Marrying Jonathan was one of the happiest days of my life! Delivering JJ was one of the proudest days of my life!”
She continued by adding, “Witnessing Jonathan be a Father” for her was a “Priceless😭” moment.
Moore was introduced to Irons through a prison ministry while visiting family in Missouri. It was then that she began to learn the details of his case and eventually developed a close friendship with him.
At 16, Irons was tried and wrongfully convicted as an adult by an all-white jury for burglary and assault charges and was sentenced to 50 years. In 2019, the former Minnesota Lynx player stunned the sports world by taking a sabbatical from basketball. She did so to pursue work in social justice and aid in Irons’ eventual release in July 2020 after more than two decades of incarceration. The connection between the two grew, and they married in September of that year. Now they have started a family.
“When I stepped away two springs ago, I just really wanted to shift my priorities to be able to be more available and present to show up for things that I felt were mattering more than being a professional athlete,” she told Good Morning America while dishing on motherhood. “And so this is obviously one of the biggest and most direct results of that.”