Brittney Griner's Wife Cherelle on Emotional Homecoming After Release from Russia
After Brittney Griner spent 294 days in Russian custody, her wife Cherelle says that she can finally breathe a sigh of relief now that she is home.
In an interview with People, Cherelle recounts what it was like to wait for her wife to come home and how she had to press on with life despite having such uncertainty hanging over her head.
"It was almost as if somebody just punched you in the stomach and you inhaled," Cherelle said about the whole ordeal. "You never get to breathe out."
While Griner was in custody, Cherelle finished law school in between pleading fro her wife's safe return home.
"I was hopeless a lot of days," Cherelle said. "You try and stay grounded, but I'm human. Still, I would never completely give up hope on my wife's life."
Griner was taken into custody by Russian officials for carrying a vape pen containing hash oil. After a drawn out trial, she was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison colony. But on Dec. 8, Cherelle entered the Oval Office and heard — along with the rest of the world — President Biden announce that Brittney had boarded a plane out of Russia and was heading home to the U.S.
"I had thought about that moment a thousand times, and I thought I would be full of tears," she said. "But I was overwhelmingly happy. It was the first time I was able to finally exhale, and I'm like, 'Oh, thank God, this is such a great day.'"
When Cherell finally got the chance to embrace her wife on an airport tarmac, she couldn't believe it was really her.
"I couldn't stop touching her face," Cherelle said. "I was like, 'Is this really you?' It did not feel real. It was chilling — and warm. I was just holding on tight. I couldn't let her go."
With Brittney finally safe and sound at home in Arizona, Cherelle admits that they did not sleep a wink on her first night.
"We just talked all night long and all morning. And it was so good to be able to do it without three weeks in between the conversation, because for 10 months we were passing letters. It was great to have that dialogue back and forth," said Cherelle.
Part of reconnecting for the couple has been learning about the people they have become while they were apart.
"It's unfortunate that those 10 months happened without us being able to be side-by-side," Cherelle said. "But it happened, and we're embracing the fact that we now get to learn each other's story through that time. So we're taking it slow. We are not doing it all at once. But we are honoring the fact that I went through something that was really hard and difficult without BG's awareness, and vice versa. Day by day, we're just feeding a little bit to the soul and understanding each other's journey so we can actually start walking together."
She added, "On one hand, I'm doing amazing. My family's whole, I have my person, and so I feel the most supported and safe and secure as I've ever felt in life. But it's very overwhelming. We're plus-13 days in from BG being away for almost 10 months. So it's a new journey for us. And so we're definitely trying to figure out how we blend back as one."