Russell Wilson credits his relationship with wife Ciara to a bit of divine intervention.
The New York Giants quarterback, 36, appeared on Carmelo Anthony’s “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast on Thursday, May 29, where he recalled wanting to take a hiatus from romance after getting divorced in 2016.
“I was young, this and that and everything else,” Wilson said. “All of a sudden I’m single. I’m like, ‘Here we go. Alright, I’m single.’ I had a whole plan. I was going to be single for, like, 10 years.”
Wilson filed for divorce from his first wife, Ashton Meem, in 2014 after two years of marriage.
One year into Wilson’s proposed sabbatical, he met Ciara.
“[Ciara] came and she just changed everything,” Wilson explained. “She changed everything.”
Right before Wilson and Ciara started dating in 2015 after meeting at a University of Wisconsin basketball game, Wilson remembered asking God, “What do I really want?”
“Three days before I met [Ciara] I remember being at church with my pastor, Judah, and I was talking to him,” Wilson said. “He said something in a sermon. He said ‘non-negotiables.’ And it had nothing to do with relationships. He just said the word ‘non-negotiables.’”
Wilson continued, “I remember going to dinner with him afterwards and I said, ‘Judah, you said something in your sermon and it hit me.’ He was like, ‘What’s that?’ ‘You said ‘non-negotiables.’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ I said, ‘You know, I feel like marriage, life, everything, You’re trying to be with somebody. I feel like marriage, you gotta have non-negotiables.”
The quarterback described marriage as “a business deal.”
“Not to be cold, but if we’re gonna be partners for life, if we’re gonna do this, you gotta have your non-negotiables,” he said.
Wilson and his pastor made a list of five non-negotiables in a potential partner, which included things like being a “believer,” being “faithful” and finding “a woman that was gonna love me the way my mom loved my dad.”
Once the list was completed, the two men “prayed over” it.
“Three days later I met [Ciara],” Wilson said.
The couple got married in July 2016 and have since welcomed three children: daughters Sienna, 8, and Amora, 17 months, and son Winn, 4. Ciara shares son Future, 11, with her ex Future.
“Having children, man, it’s been so cool,” Wilson gushed. “It really shows you what love is, to be able to love kids and do that.”
