An increasing trend on social media over the past several years is the online rise of WAGs, or wives and girlfriends, of professional athletes.
As platforms like TikTok make it easier than ever for anyone to share an inside look at their daily lives, users are flocking to watch the significant others of pro athletes. The fascinating part? There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for how WAGs pick up traction online.
Some are married to the biggest stars, like Brittany Mahomes and Kylie Kelce. Some were famous in their own right before dating their partners, like pop singers Taylor Swift and Hailee Steinfeld.
Others are well-respected athletes themselves like Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, now married to Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, and LSU star gymnast Livvy Dunne, dating Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Paul Skenes who recently won National League Rookie of the Year.
Still others are entrepreneurs, like Kristen Juszczyk, whose husband Kyle is a fullback with the San Francisco 49ers. Kristen went viral on social media for sharing her handmade game day clothing designs for herself and other WAGs, which ultimately landed her a licensing deal with the NFL to sell her designs.
Morgan Riddle, girlfriend of U.S. tennis star Taylor Fritz, shares the couple’s experiences traveling on her social media. She strives to make tennis more popular among young people and has gained so much popularity that in 2024, she hosted her own private event at the U.S. Open with Fenty Beauty.
Former Bachelor contestant Hannah Ann Sluss has been open since the start of her relationship with her now husband, NFL running back Jake Funk. From the lows of being cut and moving to new cities to the high of winning the Super Bowl in 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams, Sluss has given TikTok viewers an inside peek at their lifestyle.
Yet others build their platform from scratch, without a well-known name and sometimes, without a celebrity partner either. Allison Kucharczyk, (known as Kuch), wife of retired NFL defensive end Isaac Rochell, began sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the couple’s life on TikTok when Rochell moved on from the Los Angeles Chargers to the Indianapolis Colts.
Throughout his journey, which eventually led to Cleveland and finally Las Vegas, Kuch was open with followers about the couple’s ups and downs. This included moving to new places, building new friendships, being on and off practice squads, and dealing with the uncertainty that Rochell could be cut at any time.
Kuch and Rochell’s followers appreciated the honest look at the not-so-glamorous side of life as a professional athlete. The couple amassed many supporters throughout their journey who continued to follow along as they entered their next stage of life – parenthood.
Being the partner of a professional athlete often involves a lot of instability, from constant travel to moving and not knowing where the next contract will come from. Often, WAGs may need to put their own passions and career pursuits on the back burner.
“These women are the backbone of these athletes, and they are making everything else spin so that [their partners] can focus only on their career and being successful on the field,” Kristen Juszczyk said on a recent episode of the podcast Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce.
Juszczyk and Kelce admitted they did not like being labeled as WAGs because the term can have a derogatory connotation, but both agreed that the recent spotlight on the women behind-the-scenes and their success has greatly improved public sentiment.
There’s no question that social media has changed the landscape for WAGs and given them new opportunities to share what they are most passionate about, whether that is sports, lifestyle, family, fashion or more. They have brought new attention to sports all while making a name for themselves and positively redefining what it means to be a wife or girlfriend of a professional athlete.
