New Miami Heat star Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t want to hear any more about his wife from online trolls.
Antetokounmpo, 31, joined “AnesTea The Podcast” this week, where he was asked about his marriage to former collegiate volleyball player Mariah Riddlesprigger, with whom he shares four kids.
“I’ve heard so many things,” he said on the Monday, July 20, episode. “‘Why is Giannis with his wife? He could be with a model. Not one model but 10!’ But I am with my wife because she tells me the truth. She loves me, she will tell me whenever I do anything 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. I know that she won’t let my kids get a big head, and that’s the most important thing for me.”
He added, “I am in love. I am in love with her. As a woman and as a mother.”
Antetokounmpo, who was traded to the Heat from the Milwaukee Bucks in June, began dating Riddlesprigger, 33, in the mid-2010s. They welcomed their first child, son Liam, in 2020 and their second son, Maverick, in 2021. Their family expanded to five in 2023 with daughter Eva, with daughter Aria coming along in 2025.
The couple married in 2024 in a ceremony at the Costa Navarino resort in Greece. LeBron James, Serena Williams and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were among more than 200 guests.
Antetokounmpo’s appearance on “AnesTea The Podcast” came just weeks after he recounted how he met his wife in Las Vegas during a livestream with streamer N3on.
“I knew she would be my wife. I knew it immediately,” he said. “After Vegas, I tried to talk to her, but it didn’t work out. Then later she said, ‘I want to get to know you.’ I said, ‘You want to get to know me?’ So I started flying to Miami. You know how a lot of girls say, ‘You’re going to fly me out?’ I was like, ‘Mm-mm.’”
Antetokounmpo continued, “She was like, ‘Say less.’ A week later, I was in Miami, and she showed up. I was like, ‘You came?’ She said, ‘Yeah, I want to get to know you.’ Then she started spending time with my mom and my dad while he was still alive. The moment I saw her, I knew she was the person I wanted to be with. From the moment she came to Miami until today, she has never left my side. Now we have four kids.”
