Five months after spontaneously dropping to one knee during their Antiguan vacation last fall, Megan Rapinoe has a few definite ideas of how she’d like to kick off married life with Sue Bird.
Not necessarily a fine-tuned approach to the what, when, where of it all, the pastel-tressed soccer phenom not necessarily known for her commitment to planning. But certainly the how.
‘We Want It To Be Longer’
“We want it to be longer,” Rapinoe said in an interview with E! News. “Not just one day, but maybe just make it a great holiday for all our friends.” Because every time she she’s been to a loved one’s special day, say, when she served as Ashlyn Harris’ maid of honor at her December 2019 Miami vows to fellow U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team member Ali Krieger, “they’re just so fun, but it happens so quickly,” Rapinoe said, emphasizing with a snap. “So how do we drag this out as long as possible and have as much fun as possible, I think is kind of the goal.”
The details, like which label Rapinoe, cofounder of streetwear brand re—inc might choose for her wedding day look, will eventually work themselves out.
#CoupleGoals
“We’re both pretty low-key and laidback,” she noted. “I think it’ll just be fun. We want to bring people together that have meant so much to us personally and in our relationship and in our lives and just be able to celebrate.”
Because that’s why, after all.
In addition to enjoying each other’s company, the two Seattle stars came together to build one ass-kicking, trophy-collecting you-can’t-help-but-root-for-them pair,”I think we know exactly what our relationship means to other people,” said the 35-year-old when asked if she and WNBA point guard Bird, 40, ever feel the pressure of representing #couplegoals to so many.
“We understand how positive an impact just us being together and sort of the revolutionary act of being joyful and not struggling and being in love and being gay at the same time,” she continued. “So I think that’s something that’s really special to us.”
The label may feel awkward, “Like, ‘What? Are we dating? I don’t even know what that means.'” But when he stopped thinking, he said, “I wish we had Ellen [DeGeneres]? That was it. We have many more examples and people to look up to, so I hope we can set that example and live our lives more freely and freely. “
And if you think that level of scrutiny scares the two-time World Cup champion, the recipient of 2019’s Golden Boot and Golden Ball trophies, well, it’s possible you haven’t been paying that close of attention.
Megan Goggles
The athlete moves through life with what Bird labels “Megan Goggles,” referring to how Rapinoe just “does things sometimes. Do it…then love it…then—later, at the very end, if there’s time—worry about it.” And she’s been outspoken on everything from the Black Lives Matter movement to the recent uptick in violence against the Asian-American community. The first white American athlete to kneel during the national anthem, she continued to do so even when told it could get her kicked off the team.
“There’s been things that I’ve done in my life that are hard,” she admitted when pressed about fears she’s worked past, “but I think it’s the constant commitment to continuing to be better that can be hard. That requires a lot. It can be challenging and it can be scary because you don’t really know what’s on the other side of that.”
Right now she feels very much like we’re at the precipice of progress, “in a special moment where we can really capitalize on the groundswell and really just lean into the marginalized communities and women and people of color and all of that,” she noted. “And I feel like the more we listen to them, the more we center them, the better off everybody will be. As such, there’s only one thing that truly scares her so to speak.
“I mean, switching to a natural deodorant,” she replied, referring to the new campaign with Schmidt’s Natural Deodorant that sees her cheekily state that her go-to lavender and sage scent is “strong enough for me, but made for everyone.”
