WNBA icon Candace Parker and wife welcome adorable baby named Airr: ‘We are in absolute love’
Candace Parker and her wife, Anya Petrakova. (Instagram)
WNBA star Candace Parker and her wife Anya Petrakova have announced the birth of their baby Airr, who they’ve lovingly nicknamed Goose.
The overjoyed couple shared the happy news with fans on Instagram. They posted heartwarming family snaps featuring their new arrival as well as Parker’s 12-year-old daughter Lailaa, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Shelden Williams.
The pair’s joint caption read: “Airr Larry Petrakov Parker 2-11-22. We are in absolute love and utter appreciation that Goose chose us. Welcome to the fam SON??❤️???”.
The couple’s new addition came just months after Parker, 35, revealed she had been married to Russian professional basketball player Petrakova for two years.
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It was in the same post that Parker used to announce Petrakova was carrying their first child together.
“Two years ago, I got to marry my best friend in front of our close family and friends,” she wrote. “My heart could have exploded. I cried like a baby… To know me or you is to know our love.”
She continued: “I am proud of us and what we have built and who we have grown to become both individually and together.”
Posting a carousel of photos, Parker included snaps from her wedding to Petrakova, her wife’s pregnancy, and a shot of the two of them with Lailaa.
She added: “Thank you for always loving Lailaa as your own, being my calm, my support, my voice of reason, my laughs, my cuddles, my dance in the rain, my happy, my home…
“Thanks for constantly challenging me and telling me when I’m wrong. “We’ve always dreamed of growing our family… It’s surreal that we now have a baby on the way!”
Parker is one of the most decorated basketball stars (in both the NBA and WNBA) as a two-time WNBA champion who has also won two Olympic gold medals, at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games.
She achieved astronomical success throughout her career, playing for the Los Angeles Sparks from 2008 to 2020 and currently for the Chicago Sky.
Parker is not the only team member of the Chicago Sky who has recently celebrated a same-sex marriage.
Indeed, two of her teammates wed in 2018: Courtney Vandersloot and Alexandria Quigley.
