Russell Westbrook has been a superstar in the NBA since 2008, when he was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since then, he’s played for five other teams including the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers, and now the Denver Nuggets.
One woman has been by Westbrook’s side for every change his storied career has taken them and that is his wife, Nina Earl. Here’s more about their relationship and the legendary athlete she’s related to.
How long Westbrook and Earl have been together and when they got married
Westbrook and Earl met at the University of California, Los Angeles, where they both attended college.
They started dating in 2007 and after several years together, Westbrook popped the question. He proposed with a massive six-piece elongated cushion-cut diamond ring that cost $700,000 by jeweler-to-the-stars Jason of Beverly Hills.
They tied the knot on Aug. 29, 2015, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in front of plenty of family and friends. Several NBA players were in attendance that day including Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, and James Harden.
What Earl does for a living
Earl was born on Jan. 16, 1989, and grew up in Upland, California.
She graduated from Diamond Ranch High School, where she ran track and field and played basketball. Earl continued her basketball career at UCLA and was known as one of the fastest players on the Bruins team.
In college, she studied psychology and earned he bachelor’s degree, before receiving her master’s in clinical psychology. Today, Earl is a licensed marriage and family therapist.
She’s also the founder of the digital wellness community Bene by Nina and hosts the Do Tell Relationship podcast.
In addition, she launched the clothing line Minibrook and created the conversation card game “Do Tell.” She described the game as a “newer version of Truth or Dare,” but with a good deck so if you want to skip a question you can instead do something nice for someone else.
How many children they have together
The couple welcomed their first child, Noah, on May 16, 2017, before their twins, Skye and Jordyn, arrived on Nov. 17, 2018.
Earl later shared that the pregnancy with the twins was high-risk and she partnered with March of Dimes to “to raise awareness around the inequalities that exist throughout our healthcare system.”
“The reality is that my pregnancy with Skye and Jordyn was high risk and we did run into unforeseen complications during delivery, which was really scary,” she wrote via Instagram. “I feel so fortunate that we had the care that we had, but it pains me to know that a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes every 12 hours, and that 60% of those deaths are preventable … Unequal access to good healthcare leads to higher rates of maternal and infant health complications for Black moms and their babies, a fact March of Dimes is actively working to change.”
Earl is related to an NFL legend
Not only is Earl married to an NBA superstar, but she’s actually related to another sports legend.
Per her UCLA bio, Bruins and Seattle Seahawks great Kenny Easley is her cousin. The former defensive back is a three-time All-American, a first-round draft pick, a five-time Pro Bowler, and won the 1984 Defensive Player of the Year. He played in the NFL for seven seasons and was nicknamed “The Enforcer.”
Source: The Cheat Sheet / Digpu NewsTex