WNBA legend Sue Bird was candid about her “new era” after the end of her decade-long relationship with former USWNT soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
“It’s like anything. It’s like, you grow, you change, you start having conversations about that in your relationship, and it just got to a point where we realized it might not be working anymore,” Bird said in an interview published Tuesday for the cover of Women’s Health.
Bird and Rapinoe — who went public with their relationship in July 2017 and got engaged in 2020 — announced their separation in a joint Instagram post in April.
“We definitely planned on being together forever,” Bird said, explaining that their split really hit home when her 13- and 11-year-old nieces, her sister Jen’s daughters, had questions after the breakup because they don’t know life without Rapinoe.
Bird explained that close friends and family knew things were ending, and she and Rapinoe made the decision over a few months.
The four-time WNBA champ said their breakup was not abrupt, adding that the pair is on “great terms” and there’s “no bad blood” between them.
Bird also said their experience in couples therapy helped with communicating as they reached the end of their relationship.
“It’s made it a lot more, for me, easier and calmer. Otherwise, sometimes it can feel like you’re set in stone on something, and that can bring an anxiety, but it hasn’t felt like that,” Bird said.
The pair met at the 2016 Rio Olympics while Rapinoe played for the Seattle Reign of the NWSL and Bird played for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.
They announced the end of their podcast, “A Touch More,” in their April breakup post.
“When we were doing the podcast the last month, is it a little awkward for the two of us? Yeah,” Bird said. “The chemistry and the interaction between us, that was still very real. It really is rooted in an actual love for each other.”
Bird explained that she is excited for the future with this version of herself.
“There’s no way I am who I am without being with Megan,” she said. “But now that it’s over, I get to take this kind of, like, newish, grown-ish, healed-ish version of myself and be out in the world again. It’s exciting, it’s scary, it’s all of it.”
The Seattle Storm co-owner is based on the East Coast and serves as a studio analyst with NBC and Peacock for the 2026 WNBA season.