The life of being a professional athlete’s lady is not an easy one. It is a task mired in distrust, absenteeism, voyeurism and intrusiveness of a world that loves to watch a mess. However, with television shows like “Basketball Wives” and the litany of Instagram models aligned with pro ballers, one in particular has decided to provide some loose but straightforward guidance.
Katya Elise Henry, the mother to the baby of Miami Heat star Tyler Herro, is hip to the game with a professional basketball player. She is currently pregnant with Herro’s second child, and during an Instagram Stories session Q&A, the Instagram model advised those seeking an NBA star, with words of caution.
Henry gave her 7.9 million followers an opportunity to pick her brain when she posted, “ask me a question.” One person asked: “advice for someone who just started dating an NBA player lol.”
Henry’s wisdom was simple but poignant.
“aww man buckle up lol this life is not for the weak”
A few months ago, the NBA’s 2022 Sixth Man of the Year was rumored to have cheated on her as indicated in via a cryptic post on her Instagram, signaling trouble in paradise.
“If you cheat on someone that is willing to do anything for you, you actually cheated yourself out of true loyalty.”
Looks like Tyler Herro cheated on his girlfriend and baby mama Katya 🫢 pic.twitter.com/FfwDLGLBnU
— mev 🏀🧸🌹 (@mevvybear) June 4, 2022
However, later Herro uploaded pictures to his Instagram and wished Henry a happy birthday with an adorable caption to cement his affinity for the relationship.
“Happy Birthday to the most beautiful girl in the world. Words can’t describe how much I appreciate you. Aint no tellin where we’d be at without you. You’ve been my rock holding it down for 2 years, I can’t wait to see what life has in store for us. Enjoy. Smile. More life to 28 biggggg babbyyyy.”
This is just a sample of the back and forth between lovers and how they deal with entanglements while being the center of media and social media attention.
Instagram Star, social media influencer, and fitness model Brittney Renner have famously schooled Deion Sanders’ Jackson State University football team on the pitfalls of groupies; she is an alumna, after all. Now she has also shared her trials and tribulations as the mother to a child of P.J. Washington of the Charlotte Hornets.
my main focus is being a mom, every other role comes far after that.
— KATYA ELISE HENRY (@katyaelisehenry) August 1, 2022
Recently she updated the world about the amount of child support Washington pays for their 1-year-old son. It’s not the $200,000 per month rumor that is floating around and is $2,500 per month, she revealed, because when you’re with an NBA player, everything is on the table for dissemination.
“You can’t rely on your child’s father to provide for you,” Renner said on the “Tonight’s Conversation” podcast. “I never been about money. I provide for my child. I get $2,500 a month.”
The assumption that anytime an athlete splits from his child’s mother, the woman is living good just collecting on his NBA salary seems to almost never actually be the case.
“A lot of people think I’m getting X amount in child support and I don’t have to work and I don’t have to do all this stuff. But it’s like, I very much provide for my child. I’m here right now, my mom is watching my son and I’m here, like, doing the damn thing. I’m doing my best,” Renner said.
“A lot of people judge that, but it’s like, when you have to — you can’t rely on your child’s father to provide for you, so you have to make a way, you know? So, it’s like, I’ve never been about money, it’s never been about that, but it’s like, especially me not getting $200,000. People always say that.”
Where “Basketball Wives” and reality, in general, have paved the way for fantasy, today’s mothers of children to those playing for the NBA keep it much more accurate.
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