There’s a baby on the way! Candace Parker, 35, made a double announcement on her Instagram on Tuesday December 14. The Chicago Sky player wished her partner Anya Petrakova, 37, a happy anniversary and also announced the Russian basketball pro was pregnant with their first child together. Candace hadn’t made their marriage public prior to sharing the series of photos of themselves as a doting couple.
Candace shared a series of photos of herself with Anya, including a bunch of the two of them looking gorgeous in white dresses. The WNBA player also shared photos of her wife showing off her baby bump in a white dress at sunset. In another picture, Candace’s daughter Lailaa Nicole Williams, 12, was gesturing towards her step-mom’s stomach. Candace shares Lailaa with her ex-husband, former NBA player Shelden Williams, who she was married to from 2008 to 2016.
In her anniversary caption, Candace gushed over her wife, revealing that they’d tied the knot back in 2019. “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,” she wrote and also thanked her for loving Lailaa along with her.
After celebrating her wife, Candace announced that their family was growing by one more. “[I]t’s surreal that we now have a baby on the way! Lailaa is pumped to be a big sister!,” she wrote. After telling Anya how beautiful she is, Candace also mentioned how she’s been showing her excitement to be a mom again. “Glowing, while understanding that I have to constantly love, kiss, and talk to your belly AND yes… play Jay-Z for the baby,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to embark on this next chapter in life with you!”
Plenty of stars sent Candace and Anya their congratulations in comment, including Vanessa Bryant. “Happy Anniversary!!! Sending you all lots of love,” she wrote. Candace was a friend of Vanessa’s late husband Kobe Bryant, and she shared a cute picture of herself playing with the NBA icon’s now-five-year-old daughter Bianka in October 2020. Bianka locked Candace in a Frozen-themed playhouse. Being a mother to little ones definitely comes naturally to Candace, and it’s definitely exciting that she’ll have another baby running around soon.