Celtics Star Jrue Holiday's Wife Once Had Surgery to Remove a Brain Tumor
Jrue Holiday's wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor while pregnant with their first child.
Published June 7 2024, 10:26 a.m. ET
Thanks to his outstanding defense, Jrue Holiday has made a name for himself throughout his career and is now competing for his second championship with the Boston Celtics. As more people come to appreciate Jrue's skill on the court, many are also wondering what his situation is when he goes home.
Jrue has been married to his wife Lauren for more than a decade, and the two have already experienced plenty of hardship together. Here's what we know about Jrue's wife, and about their relationship with one another.
Who is Jrue Holiday's wife?
Jrue and Lauren met when they were both student athletes at UCLA in 2008. Jrue played basketball, and Lauren played soccer. Jrue played just a single season at UCLA before being drafted, and has since played for the 76ers, the Pelicans, the Bucks, and now the Celtics. Lauren, meanwhile, played club soccer for years with the Pali Blues, Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City and was also a part of the US Women's National team, where she won several Olympic gold medals and FIFA world cups.
Lauren retired from professional soccer in 2015 to focus on her family, and the two have since had two children together. The two were married in 2013 in Malibu, Cali. and members of Jrue's 76ers team were in attendance.
Lauren admitted to the Philadelphia Inquirer that planning a wedding wasn't her thing, but added that "knowing that I’m going to be with him for the rest of my life has been quite a cool feeling.”
Lauren was diagnosed with a brain tumor while pregnant with their first child.
Lauren and Jrue welcomed their first child, Jrue Tyler, in September of 2016, and their second, Hendrix, in 2020. While she was pregnant with Jrue Tyler, though, Lauren was diagnosed with a brain tumor known as a meningioma after experiencing severe headaches. Jrue ultimately sat out the beginning of the 2016-2017 season with the Pelicans so that he could support his wife.
“My family comes before basketball,” Jrue said to NOLA.com. “I’m obviously blessed to play this game and be in the position I am in, but my wife is the most important thing in the world to me. She comes before anything else.”
Doctors ultimately decided to induce Lauren's labor early so that she could have the brain surgery necessary to save her own life.
“Every time I see this smile I’m reminded that joy does come in the morning,” she wrote on Instagram of her own recovery and her relationship with her newborn. “Maybe not the next day, maybe not even the next month but it comes. I can’t imagine what heaven will be like if this is the joy I get to experience on earth.”
After recovering, Jrue and Lauren worked together to launch a nonprofit dedicated to battling systemic racism.
"I have pledged the remainder of my 2020 NBA salary as a progressive step toward combating systemic racism as well as social and economic inequality that continues to prevent Black communities from upward mobility," Jrue said at the time.