Cherelle Griner, the wife of basketball star Brittney Griner, stood next to President Biden at the White House during his announcement about her wife’s release on Thursday and said she had endured some of the “darkest moments” of her life since her partner’s arrest in Moscow in February.
Over the months, she had steadily put public pressure on the White House not to forget about her wife and she said that “today my family is whole.”
“The most important emotion I have right now is sincere gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration. He just mentioned that this work is not easy, and it hasn’t been,” she said, adding that she also remembered the family of Paul Whelan, another American who remains imprisoned in Russia.
Cherelle Griner said in October that she had spoken to her wife just twice by phone since her detention. She said at the time that the W.N.B.A. star was afraid of being “left and forgotten.”
In her brief address, she also thanked other W.N.B.A. players for their support. The players had led social media campaigns and charity drives to support Brittney Griner, who has played for the Phoenix Mercury since 2013.
She was stopped in February at an airport near Moscow. Customs officials accused her of carrying vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage. She had been returning to Russia to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg, a powerhouse professional women’s basketball team, during the W.N.B.A. off season.
Original story from https://www.nytimes.com
