WNBA’s Candace Parker welcomes son with wife Anna Petrakova

WNBA star and broadcaster Candace Parker announced Friday that she and her wife Anya Petrakova have welcomed their first baby together, son Airr Larry Petrakov Parker. 

Their baby boy was born on Friday, Feb. 11, the couple announced in a joint Instagram post.

“Airr Larry Petrakov Parker 2-11-22 We are in absolute love and utter appreciation that Goose chose us. Welcome to the fam SON❤️???,” they captioned a series of family photos. 

The baby is Petrakova’s first child and Parker’s second. She shares a 12-year-old daughter Lailaa with ex-husband Shelden Williams.

“I owe everything I am to her, just because she’s been my motivation and my reason for everything,” Parker, 35, said about her daughter in a press conference after the Game 4 match with the Phoenix Mercury on Oct. 17., Popsugar reported.

“We’ve gone through this together, you know? She sacrifices her mom so that I can live my dream. I just am so thankful for her, that she’s here for the big moments, but she’s also here when I don’t want to get up and go work out, she sees those moments,” she said. “So I just am so over the moon at how amazing she’s grown up to be, and I know I’m partial, but she’s an amazing young lady.”

In December, the Chicago Sky captain announced she and Petrakova, 37, were having a baby while simultaneously surprising fans by revealing that they had been married for two years. 

“Happy Anniversary Моя жена! 2 years ago, I got to marry my best friend in front of our close family and friends. My heart could have exploded. I cried like a baby…. To know me or you is to know our love. This journey hasn’t been easy. I am proud of us and what we have built and who we have grown to become both individually and together,” Parker captioned an Instagram post of photos from their wedding.

“Thank you for always loving Lailaa as your own, being my calm, my support, my voice of reason, my laughs, my cuddles, my dance in the rain, my happy, my home… Thanks for constantly challenging me and telling me when I’m wrong ?. I LOVE YOU? I appreciate you, I value you and what we have,” she continued.

Parker concluded the post by noting that “Lailaa is pumped to be a big sister.”

Per The Sun, “Petrakova, 37, is a Russian basketball player who was a member of the fourth-placed Russian women’s national basketball team at the 2012 Summer Olympics.”

Parker, one of the most decorated female basketball players in the WNBA, won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. In 2021 she signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Sky.

As previously reported by theGrio, in October, Parker, a two-time league MVP, helped lead the team to its first WNBA title.

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