WNBA star Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle expecting first child

WNBA star Brittney Griner and her wife, Cherelle, are expecting their first child, according to a post on Instagram Saturday.

"Can’t believe we’re less than three months away from meeting our favorite human being,” the couple wrote under a picture of them holding hands over an ultrasound of the child.

Griner spent nearly 10 months in a Russian prison in 2022 on drug-related charges after authorities found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She was later convicted and sentenced to nine years in a Russian jail.

She acknowledged in court that she possessed the canisters with cannabis oil but said she had no criminal intent and their presence in her luggage was due to hasty packing.

Griner was released in December 2022 after a high-level prisoner exchange that involved arms dealer Viktor Bout.

In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers. He was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and extradited to the U.S. in 2010.

Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, Baylor University All-American and Phoenix Mercury pro basketball star, whose arrest made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad.

___

Editor's note:The Associated Press contributed to this article.