WNBA star Maya Moore has wed Jonathan Irons, the man she helped free from jail.
Irons had been in jail since he was 16 and served 23 years for a murder he did not commit. Moore took a two-year hiatus from the league to help Irons overturn his conviction. He was finally released in July.
Moore and Irons appeared on Good Morning America this week to announce that they tied the knot months ago.
“I got to know him, and over the last 13 years we have just developed a friendship and entered into this huge battle to get him home,” Moore said. “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.”
Irons revealed that he had asked Moore to marry him years ago, but he did want her to feel trapped, as he was an incarcerated man, and his freedom was not guaranteed.
“I just want you wait until I’m home,” Irons says he told her. “Because in my mind, I didn’t know if I’d be home. And she’s such an amazing, beautiful person, I could never trap her or not let her fulfill her dreams of being a wife and being a mother one day.”
Moore was asked whether she plans on returning to the WNBA.
“So I’m still trying to be so present in this second year away from the game,” Moore said. “I’m hoping sometime in the spring we’ll be able to have a next step moving forward, but right now I am trying to really just breathe from this long, long battle, and enjoy and rest. Again, just being in the moment. There’s a lot of unknowns for a lot of us right now, so I’m still in that camp.”
Congratulations to the happy couple!
