Though Kyrie Irving has found global fame due to his massive success with the NBA, the professional basketball player has kept his personal life quite private. Kyrie Irving and his wife, Marlene Wilkerson, have not made a habit of attending big red carpet events, posting their public drama, or even showing off their engagement. Still, there are a few key hints about the couple that can help to clue us in on the nature of their relationship, and a solid handful of loving social media posts shared between the two to confirm our suspicions.
With Kyrie Irving currently making major waves in the NBA finals, now seems like as good a time as any to highlight the massive contributions that his wife has made to his life and career. Without any further preamble, let’s examine everything we currently know about Marlene Wilkerson.
Wilkerson Is an Influencer and Small Business Owner
Marlene Wilkerson may be married to Kyrie Irving, but she’s much more than a run-of-the-mill basketball wife. The young woman is a small business owner, touting hundreds of thousands of followers through platforms such as her official YouTube channel. On the video sharing platform, Wilkerson frequently updates her audience with vlogs regarding her pregnancy workout routine, use of natural and holistic bath products, and home birth remedies. Despite keeping much of her personal life private, Marlene manages to utilize her channel to share deeply intimate and personal moments with her followers, while showcasing a wide array of clothing and other products for sale in her shop. Like her YouTube username, her online store is titled The Fine Guru.
Wilkerson is a Los Angeles native, with a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from California State University, Dominguez Hills. Per her LinkedIn account, Marlene served as a marketing associate at Victoria’s Secret while attending college, before joining Crystal Clean LA in 2015. While working on a final college assignment, Marlene was encouraged to launch a social media page to provide weekly updates on her online shop, which helped to bring in tons of followers over the years. As of now, it looks like she’s taking a brief hiatus from the YouTube channel in order to focus on other pressing projects, as her last video was uploaded in October of 2023. Still, the page touts a following of over 767,000 users, proving that her expert marketing strategy appeals to a massive audience.
The Pair Were First Spotted Together In 2018
While Kyrie Irving never made any official announcements regarding his courtship of his now wife, their first public appearance can be dated back to 2018. Fans of the NBA legend made note of Marlene Wilkerson in the crowd at Irving’s first annual youth basketball tournament, the Kyrie Invitational, which he has been running ever since. Many fans theorized that sparks were flying between the couple, which was confirmed less than a year later when the duo were seen sporting engagement rings. Despite the fact that the couple have never thrown a large, elaborate wedding, Kyrie Irving and Marlene Wilkerson have referred to one another as husband and wife since 2022, leading the public to believe that they wed in a small, private ceremony.
In one particularly vulnerable Instagram post, Kyrie shouted out Wilkerson for her birthday, writing “I love you and I am eternally grateful we get to spend our lives together. You have taught me so much about Balance, Love, Trust, Community and Forgiveness… It’s been an honor to see you become a Mother and raise Kaire, and I am grateful I get to experience all of the growth with YOU. Thank you for everything my love. Continue to be a LIGHT And illuminate the path creator put in front of you.”
The Couple Share Two Young Children
Kyrie Irving and Marlene Wilkerson announced the birth of their first child in 2021, after delivering a fully-natural home water birth. Wilkerson has explained in her YouTube videos that she preferred to keep the pregnancy under wraps until the child was born, as she wasn’t interested in hearing unsolicited childbirth advice from strangers on the internet. Since having her first child however, Marlene has taken a liking to natural pregnancy remedies, and has vlogged throughout her journey while welcoming her second child in October 2022. Very little is known about the couples’ kids at this time, though Marlene and the babies were seen on the sidelines of the NBA playoffs during May 2024, cheering on Kyrie as he played with the Dallas Mavericks. Kyrie Irving also has one daughter named Azurie Elizabeth, whom he shares with model Andrea Wilson.
While Marlene and Kyrie enjoy building their blended family, the former has expressed interest in having more kids with time. Clearly Kyrie Irving’s wife enjoys the process of pregnancy and the many moving parts to carefully plan a natural home birth, as this has become a major theme throughout her YouTube content. In one July 2021 video titled “Postpartum & Natural Birth Chit Chat” the 29-year-old expressed “If it was up to me, I would be pregnant all the time, every time. Literally right after I gave birth, I stood up, and I was like, ‘I need 19 more kids. Let’s make it to 20.’”
What’s Next For Kyrie and Marlene?
For now, Marlene Wilkerson’s socials have been mostly quiet, leading some fans of her work to assume that she is in the process of launching a new clothing line or marketing project. Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving is fighting hard to come out on top of the 2024 NBA finals, which are currently raging on. While the Boston Celtics have gotten a leg up over Kyrie and his Dallas Mavericks in the first few games of the finals, the outcome of the championship is still undecided.