Giannis Antetokounmpo has been married to his wife, Mariah, since 2024, and he’s heard all that people have had to say about their pairing. Mariah isn’t your typical “model-like woman” a lot of male celebrities tend to be with, but Giannis explained why she is the one for him on AnesTea The Podcast.
“I’ve heard so many things,” Giannis said. “Why is Giannis with this wife? He could be with a model. Not one model, but ten! But I am with my wife because she tells me the truth. She loves me. She will tell me whenever I do something wrong. She will tell my kids the truth.
“I know that she will kill for my kids, and she would even kill me for them,” Giannis continued. “I know that she won’t let my kids get a big head, and that’s the most important thing for me. And I am in love. I am in love with her.”
Giannis and Mariah had first crossed paths in Las Vegas during Summer League in 2014. He tried to speak to her then, but things didn’t quite work out.
Later on, though, Mariah told Giannis she wanted to get to know him, and he told her she’d have to fly out to Miami to meet him. He wasn’t going to fly her out, but she still made the trip, and the rest is history.
Giannis and Mariah would go from strength to strength as a couple over time and welcomed their first child together, a boy named Liam, on Feb. 10, 2020. Their second son, Maverick, arrived over a year later on Aug. 18, 2021.
Giannis then announced that he and Mariah had gotten engaged in Sept. 2023. On the 14th of that month, they welcomed their first daughter, Eva.
Just under a year after that, Giannis and Mariah got married on Sept. 1, 2024, in Greece. They had their first child post-marriage a year later when their second daughter Eva was born in May 2025. Mariah’s love for their children is just another reason why Giannis adores her.
“The biggest investment in life is the person you’ll spend your life with,” Giannis said. “Your whole life with. You should know that. My wife holds the keys to my heart, to my brain, to my wallet, and most importantly, she holds the keys to my home. She stays with my kids when I’m traveling. She could easily tell the kids, ‘Your father left for another trip and left us here. He doesn’t want to be with us.’
“But, no, she’s telling them the truth,” Giannis added. “[She says], ‘Your dad came from nothing. He is out there working right now so you can go to school, and have food on your plate. When he says, don’t throw food away, clean your plate, it’s because he came from nothing.’ She even takes them to my old neighborhood.”
Giannis first fell in love with Mariah the woman, and then the mother. There isn’t anyone else in this world the 31-year-old would rather be with.
Mariah and Giannis are now preparing for a new chapter in their life, with the latter being traded this offseason. It was time for the 10-time All-Star to leave the Milwaukee Bucks, and he now finds himself with the Miami Heat. Giannis wanted to get out of the comfort zone that he was in at Milwaukee, and it will be interesting to see how his time in Miami goes.
