WNBA Star Maya Moore Announced Marriage To Wrongfully Imprisoned Man She Helped Free From Prison

Love comes from unlikely places!

WNBA star Maya Moore announced her marriage to Jonathan Irons, the man she helped free from prison, CNN reports.

A few months ago, Irons walked out of prison a free man after serving a 22-year prison sentence for a crime he never committed. The Missouri native was convicted in 1998 at just 16 years old, tried as an adult, and sentenced to 50 years in prison. As fate would have it, Maya’s godfather and extended family were involved in prison ministry; something Moore would take up as a teenager. During her freshman year of college, she met Irons and eventually joined her family’s fight to help exonerate him. 

A four-time WNBA champion, six-time WNBA All-Star, and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Moore announced in February 2019 that she would be sitting out the 2019 season to focus on ministry, starting first with Irons’ freedom. After years of appeals and fighting to get the conviction overturned, Irons walked out of Jefferson City Correctional Center more than two decades later. The emotional moment was caught on camera, with Moore dropping to her knees in gratitude. 

Now the two have announced their marriage to the world.

“We wanted to announce today that we are super excited to continue the work that we’ve been doing together, but doing it as a married couple. We got married a couple months ago, and we’re excited to just continue this new chapter of life together,” Moore told Good Morning America.

The two said that they built a friendship through their journey, a relationship they eventually realized was more profound than either of them could imagine. According to Elle, a few years ago, a prison visit solidified what the two felt, Irons, proposing that same day, but the two agreed to keep it private until the right time. 

“[We] acknowledged, both of us, that we had really strong feelings for each other. So much so that I wanted to marry her. But at the same time, protect her, because being in a relationship with a man in prison is extremely difficult and painful. I didn’t want her to feel trapped. [I proposed but] I said, ‘I just want you to wait until I’m home,’ because I didn’t know if I’d be home and she’s such an amazing, beautiful person I could never trap her and not let her fulfill her dreams of being a wife and being a mother one day,” Irons said. 

Once he was released, Irons proposed again, and they were married in a socially distanced ceremony among their closest family and friends.

“I got to know him, and over the last 13 years, we have just developed a friendship and [then] entered this huge battle to get him home, and over time it was pretty clear what the Lord was doing in our hearts. Now we’re sitting here today, starting a whole new chapter together,” said Moore. 

The two wanted to wait to announce their union to keep the focus on Moore’s Win With Justice campaign, which is currently urging people to get out and vote. Moore and Irons appeared together in a new video for the initiative, shining a light on the thousands of citizens wrongfully convicted every year, prosecutorial misconduct, and the power that voting has on the justice system. 

The WNBA star and activist is still optimistic about her possible return to basketball, but she’s taking it day by day, focused more on her new calling – prison reform. 

“I’m hoping sometime in the spring we’ll be able [to] have a next step moving forward. But now, I am trying to really just breathe from this long, long battle, and enjoy and rest,” Moore said.

Congratulations, Maya and Jonathan! May you have a blessed union!

Photo Courtesy of @mooremaya/Instagram