Candace Parker used to date men, and describes ‘crazy’ feeling when she met her wife

For former WNBA star Candace Parker, a switch was turned on when she met her now wife.

“I had always dated men before, and was open and honest about that,” Parker said on the “All the Smoke” podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson last week. “And then I think I just, I met my wife, and it was crazy. I started looking at things differently. She was my best friend, genuinely, and and then it became more and more from that.”

Barnes became uncharacteristically tongue-tied when he broached the subject of now Parker became attracted to women, which led her to tease him for using “corporate” speak.

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In 2008, Parker married former Duke basketball player Shelden Williams and the two have a daughter. In 2021, Parker came out when she announced she had married former basketball player Anna Petrakova in 2019. The two became close when Parker played pro basketball in Russia on the same team. The couple have two sons.

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Parker retired from the WNBA after a Hall of Fame career that saw her win three WNBA titles and two Olympic gold medals. She is now a commentator on NBA and NCAA tournament games along with being the president of women’s basketball at Adidas,

On the podcast, Parker showed an awareness of why it was important for LGBTQ athletes to be visible and not just quietly be out.

‘”I used to be, like, I shouldn’t have to come out, right?” Parker said. “I don’t come out and be like, ‘This is my husband. I am, you know, I am heterosexual.’

“I used to think like, I don’t have to come out, but you do a little bit because you don’t know the people that you’re impacting that don’t have that ability to have a free choice. I was financially set. I could take care of myself. I didn’t depend on anybody else that could determine my lifestyle.

“There are so many people through this process that I’ve met that have been like, ‘My mom doesn’t approve of it, and I can’t because she you know, I’m living with her or whatever.’ I talk to the people that are supporting those that are trying to talk more openly about their lives and making decisions like that, because to just not talk to somebody or to cut somebody off or whatever, because the decision that they make, I think, is just crazy.”

Parker is also aware that speaking out being LGBTQ on a basketball show with “two dudes” is “important, because there’s a lot of different places that aren’t OK with it,” such as her wife’s native Russia, where LGBTQ people face a host of social and state-sanctioned political oppression.

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