From college athletes to going pro – Boston Celtics’ player Jrue Holiday and former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team player Lauren Holiday have stuck by each other’s sides through it all.
The couple met in 2008 while attending UCLA, where the twosome were both student athletes. However, they didn’t start dating until Jrue was drafted onto the Philadelphia 76ers in 2009.
After four years of dating, the twosome tied the knot in 2013 and went on to welcome daughter Jrue Tyler in 2016 and son Hendrix in 2020.
Jrue and Lauren have continued to be supportive of each other’s careers.
“She’s literally the athlete and the winner in our family. Getting that from her means a lot to me. It’s real, and she backs it up,” Jrue said in a 2021 New York Times profile, adding that Lauren encouraged him to return to the NBA after COVID.
Jrue, for his part, surprised Lauren with the news that she was selected for the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2023.
Keep scrolling to learn more details about their relationship:
2008
Jrue and Lauren met as student athletes at UCLA where Jrue was playing basketball and Lauren was playing soccer.
Jrue shared that he was introduced to Lauren at a UCLA women’s basketball game after a young fan mistook Jrue for his teammate Darren Collison. When he sat down in his seat, Lauren turned to him and said, “Don’t worry, you’re cuter than Darren is.”
“And she was older than me, which is cool,” Jrue told ESPN in a 2015 interview. “I was a freshman, and I think she was a junior. At the time we were both with other people, but we did become friends, and months later, after I got drafted, we started dating.”
2012
After three years of dating, the couple got engaged.
“Being engaged has been awesome,” Lauren said in a January 2013 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Obviously, planning a wedding is not quite my thing, but knowing that I’m going to be with him for the rest of my life has been quite a cool feeling.”
2013
The duo got married in a beautiful ceremony in Malibu, California.
September 2016
Lauren gave birth to her and Jrue’s first child, a daughter named Jrue Tyler. Only a few weeks after welcoming her daughter, Lauren had to undergo brain surgery because of a brain tumor known as meningioma.
“Every time I see this smile I’m reminded that joy does come in the morning,” Lauren wrote in a February 2017 Instagram post alongside a photo of Jrue Tyler. “Maybe not the next day, maybe not even the next month but it comes. I can’t imagine what heaven will be like if this is the joy I get to experience on earth.”
July 2020
Lauren and Jrue launched their own social justice initiative, The Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Justice Impact Fund, which would donate to Black-led nonprofits, programs and institutions of higher learning in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Indianapolis.
“Honestly when it came down to it, it was me and my wife talking about what we could do to kind of further this movement and progression and being able to help out our community and just being able to help,” he told ESPN at the time.
November 2020
The couple welcomed their second child, a son named Hendrix.
April 2024
Jrue was named to the 2024 USA Basketball Men’s National Team, which will compete at the Paris Olympics starting on July 26. Lauren cheered on her husband by sharing the good news via Instagram.