Jrue Holiday and Lauren Holiday: All About the Athletes’ Relationship

Jrue and Lauren Holiday are the epitome of a sports power couple.

NBA point guard Jrue first met former U.S. soccer star Lauren when they were both student-athletes at UCLA in 2008. The pair married in 2013 and have two children together, daughter Jrue Tyler and son Hendrix.

Over the course of their relationship, both Jrue and Lauren have built impressive careers within their respective sports. After playing basketball for one season at UCLA, Jrue was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers before joining the New Orleans Pelicans. Since 2020, he has played for the Milwaukee Bucks, leading the team to the NBA championship in 2021 and an Olympic gold medal in 2020.

Following her time at UCLA, Lauren went on to play club soccer with the Pali Blues, Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City before joining the U.S. women’s national soccer team. The team won gold at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the 2012 London Summer Olympics and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. In 2014, Lauren was named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year.

In 2015, Lauren retired from professional soccer to focus on her family. In the years since, the couple have welcomed their children, started a nonprofit social justice initiative and continued to publicly support each other.

“It’s always been God, family and basketball,” Jrue said in a 2019 interview with Andscape. “To put them before basketball to me is a blessing. And God has blessed me with so much more after that. I don’t know if I could be playing without my family.”

Here’s everything to know about Jrue Holiday and Lauren Holiday’s relationship.

They met while attending UCLA

The couple met in 2008 as students at UCLA, where Jrue played basketball and Lauren played soccer.

In a 2015 interview with ESPN, Jrue said he met Lauren at a UCLA women’s basketball game after a young fan mistook Jrue for his teammate Darren Collison and asked for an autograph.

He told the outlet that when he sat down, Lauren turned to him and said, “Don’t worry, you’re cuter than Darren is.”

“And she was older than me, which was cool,” Jrue recalled. “I was a freshman, and I think she was a junior. At the time we were both with other people, but we did become friends, and months later, after I got drafted, we started dating.”

They got married in 2013

After a year-long engagement, Jrue and Lauren were married in Malibu, California. Many of Jrue’s former 76ers teammates attended the seaside nuptials, including Andre Iguodala, Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes and Royal Ivey, plus Jason Richardson and his wife Jackie.

“Being engaged has been awesome,” Lauren said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer in the months leading up to her wedding. “Obviously, planning a wedding is not quite my thing, but knowing that I’m going to be with him for the rest of my life has been quite a cool feeling.”

They have two children together

In September 2016, just weeks before undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumor, Lauren gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter named Jrue Tyler, in North Carolina. In 2020, they welcomed a son named Hendrix.

Both Lauren and Jrue frequently share photos of their children on social media, as well as heartfelt tributes to each other. “You as a mother … it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Jrue wrote in a Mother’s Day Instagram post for Lauren in 2022. “The way you love our kids is so pure and I’m here for it always.”

Lauren was diagnosed with a brain tumor while pregnant with their daughter

When she was six months pregnant with their daughter, Lauren was diagnosed with a type of brain tumor known as a meningioma after experiencing painful headaches, ABC News reported. In September 2016, Jrue announced that he would be sitting out the beginning of the 2016-2017 season with the New Orleans Pelicans in order to help his wife through her recovery.

“My family comes before basketball,” Jrue, 26, told NOLA.com. “I’m obviously blessed to play this game and be in the position I am in, but my wife is the most important thing in the world to me. She comes before anything else.”

Doctors ended up inducing Lauren’s labor early so she could have the necessary brain surgery, which took place at Duke University Hospital in October 2016.

After giving birth and undergoing successful brain surgery to remove the tumor, Lauren reflected on her health challenges, crediting her then-five-month-old daughter for helping her through it.

“Every time I see this smile I’m reminded that joy does come in the morning,” she wrote on Instagram. “Maybe not the next day, maybe not even the next month but it comes. I can’t imagine what heaven will be like if this is the joy I get to experience on earth.”

They founded a social justice nonprofit organization

In July 2020, Jrue announced that with his remaining salary for the 2019-2020 NBA season, he was launching a social justice initiative alongside his wife. The Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Justice Impact Fund, he explained in an Instagram post, would donate to Black-led nonprofits, programs and institutions of higher learning in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Indianapolis.

“I have pledged the remainder of my 2020 NBA salary as a progressive step toward combating systemic racism as well as social and economic inequality that continues to prevent Black communities from upward mobility,” Jrue said.

“Honestly when it came down to it, it was me and my wife talking about what we could do to kind of further this movement and progression and being able to help out our community and just being able to help,” he told ESPN after the announcement.

Later that month, Jrue arrived at the New Orleans Pelicans game wearing a mask that said  “Say Their Names,” a chant that arose during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

They are publicly supportive of each others’ careers

Since their days as college athletes, Jrue and Lauren have been a source of support for each other. In a 2021 New York Times profile, Jrue said that not only does his wife cheer him on, but she also offers constructive criticism when he needs it.

“She’s literally the athlete and the winner in our family. Getting that from her means a lot to me. It’s real, and she backs it up,” Jrue said regarding Lauren’s feedback. The athlete also said that it was Lauren who encouraged him to return to the NBA after the onset of COVID-19.

The support goes both ways, too. Even though Lauren is retired from soccer, Jrue still recognizes her achievements. In November 2022, he shared a YouTube video surprising Lauren with the news that she was selected for the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

They were involved in a $13 million insurance lawsuit

In February 2022, The New York Times reported that Jrue and Lauren, along with other pro athletes, filed claims against Morgan Stanley, alleging that the firm’s fraudulent investments collectively cost them $13 million.

A year later, in March 2023, four brokers were charged with defrauding professional athletes, and though the prosecution never named Jrue and Lauren as the victims, the details of the case match their claims, the Times reported.

Lauren has spoken out about the racism Jrue has faced

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, Lauren penned an essay for The Players’ Tribune detailing the many instances of racism that her husband has faced over the years.

The soccer star recalled a number of infuriating experiences, but noted that one in particular made her want to speak out. While driving with Jrue’s sister, Lauren was pulled over by a cop only to realize that she didn’t have her license on her. She called Jrue and asked him to bring it to her and when he arrived, he was handcuffed by police for no apparent reason.

“Even though the officer knew in advance that Jrue was my husband, and that he was coming to the scene, and why. Even though no one had explained to us why we had even been pulled over in the first place. And even though Jrue could not have been more careful, or more deferential, in how he made his approach. All the cop saw was this large black man getting out of a car,” Lauren wrote.