Cherelle Griner is asking a Georgia court for ongoing financial support from Brittney Griner, citing a sharp income gap after the WNBA star moved to end their marriage.
In a response to the divorce petition, Cherelle told the court she cannot cover her reasonable monthly needs without continued help and pointed to what she called a “substantial disparity” in earnings between the spouses.
Complex reported that the filing also seeks joint legal custody of their young son, Bash, while leaving physical custody and parenting time for the court to set under a best-interests standard.
The case is pending in Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia, where Brittney filed after the couple’s separation.
Cherelle’s papers do not list a public dollar figure for the support she wants. They do state, in plain terms, why she is asking.
She is an attorney, according to coverage of the response, and still argues she is “unable to meet her reasonable financial needs on a monthly basis without continued support.”
That claim sits next to Brittney’s current basketball paycheck. Reporting on the filings notes Brittney signed a one-year deal with the Connecticut Sun worth more than $1 million, with one account putting the 2026 maximum contract value at about $1.19 million.
High-earner splits often turn on the same fight over lifestyle and cash flow, as in other high-profile divorce battles where support and asset demands dominate the docket.
Brittney’s original petition sought an equitable division of marital assets and debts and addressed custody. Cherelle’s answer keeps money and parenting at the center of what a judge will have to sort out.
Both sides have now framed the relationship as finished. Cherelle’s response describes the marriage as “irretrievably broken with no hope for reconciliation.”
"irretrievably broken with no hope for reconciliation"
Court records cited in earlier coverage of Brittney’s filing used the same core language that the marriage was irretrievably broken, Fox News reported when the star first moved to end the union.
Filings state the couple separated on July 24, and Brittney filed for divorce six days later. A hearing date tied to the case has been noted in related reporting for early September.
Celebrity cases frequently follow that path from filing to a hard break, including stars who move forward with divorce after the relationship cannot be salvaged.
Bash arrived in 2024. Cherelle wants joint legal custody. She asks the court to decide physical custody and parenting time based on the child’s best interests rather than locking in a fixed schedule in her response.
That leaves a Georgia judge to set the practical terms of parenting while the money claims proceed on a separate track. No temporary support order or final custody ruling is described in the available filings coverage.
The two met at Baylor University, where Brittney starred before going No. 1 in the 2013 WNBA draft. They married in June 2018.
Their marriage drew intense public attention in 2022, when Brittney was detained in Russia and later returned to the United States in a December 2022 prisoner exchange. Cherelle pressed publicly for that release and told Good Morning America at the time, “I won't go down until she's back.”
"I won't go down until she's back."
Years later, the legal posture is different. The same spouses are now in a Georgia divorce court arguing over support, assets, and time with their son. Other well-known couples have tried to reverse course after a filing and still ended up in court when reconciliation did not hold.
Documents obtained by TMZ underpinned the quotes from Cherelle’s response about the income gap and monthly needs. The papers do not, in the public accounts, spell out Cherelle’s own income figures or a precise support number for a judge to rubber-stamp.
Open pieces are basic. How much support, if any, is owed. How parenting time works. How marital property and debt get divided.
Brittney plays for the Connecticut Sun off a large one-year contract. Cherelle is asking the court to treat that earnings gap as decisive for monthly help. The judge, not the headlines, will weigh those claims against full financial disclosures.
Ugly money fights are common when a famous name and a big contract hit the same divorce file, and post-split spending fights have followed other celebrity divorce settlements in recent coverage.
For now, the record shows a short timeline from separation to filing, a support request built on claimed inability to meet monthly needs, and a shared son whose schedule remains for the court to set.
When vows give way to filings, the public scoreboard is simple: who earns what, who pays what, and whether the court holds both adults to the same hard rules on money and parenting.