Yesterday at the light-filled Sant Ffraed House, a venue which reportedly offers unparalleled views of the Welsh countryside, an epic wedding took place. The event drew guests from all over the country, spanning multiple professional women’s sports teams. It was, of course, the royal wedding of Welsh footballer Jess Fishlock, 36, and Tziarra King, 25, who are currently teammates on the National Women Soccer League’s OL Reign.
Attendees of this notable event included soccer superstars Megan Rapinoe (who recently retired from the OL Reign) and Ali Krieger, Megan Rapinoe’s legendary basketball girlfriend Sue Bird, OL Reign teammate Lauren Barnes and OL Reign manager Laura Harvey.
Jess Fishlock is Welsh and a player on the Welsh National Team, and many of her WNT teammates were also present including Laura O’Sullivan, Gemma Evans, Sophie Ingle (gay), Angharad James (gay), Rachel Rowe, Kayleigh Anne Marie Green and Lily Woodham (gay). Also present were WNT “ambassador & centurion” / retired footballer / Watford FC Manager Helen Ward, Scottish footballer and Arsenal midfielder Kim Little and Lewes F.C. midfielder Kirsty Barton.
Fishlock and King have been teammates on the OL Reign since 2021, when King was traded from Utah Royals FC after one season, which’s where she’d launched her post-college club career. Fishlock began playing for the Reign in 2013, after playing with the Melbourne Victory, Bristol Academy WFC, AZ Alkmaar and Cardiff City LFC. But Fishlock was sent on loan to the FA Women’s Super League side Reading FC in August 2020, so she didn’t meet King until Fishlock returned, a few months after preseason training camp began in 2021. After weeks of building a friendship, their first date was at a Bellevue steakhouse.
Fishlock and King announced their engagement in October of 2022, and the two were shocked by all the subsequent attention. “People love us!” Jess Fishlock told the Seattle Times. “I was a little surprised by how many people were really happy and a lot of messages we’d get are just ‘We love seeing it,’ ‘The visibility is super helpful for us’ and that ‘it means so much that we can see a queer relationship.’ Whatever you want to call it is totally fine with us, we’re who we are, we’re in love and that’s it.”
The couple had what appears to be some sort of bridal shower this past June. (Ali Krieger commented “Well I must have missed my invite😭😩” on the post about the ambiguous bridal-themed event.)
Can we do it again ? 😂. pic.twitter.com/avTBHqZFxk
— Jessica Fishlock MBE (@JessFishlock) December 13, 2023
The couple entered the party to the sweet dulcet tones of Bruno Mars’ “Marry You,” a song that was also prominently featured at the wedding of Burt Hummel and Carole Hudson in 2010. Sue Bird, Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe all posted delightful instagram slideshows and collages from the event. It appears that everybody danced really hard, and that is important.
We wish the happy couple many happy returns and endless joy and laughter for the rest of their lives forever!!!!
Trying to position this on the spectrum of gay things to happen in Wales, and putting it somewhere higher than Ladies of Llangollen, but maybe below Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners?
Bonus fact: the Welsh equivalent of queer is spelled “cwiyr”
As a Welsh person it amuses me when we take an English word and spell it as if it was a Welsh one. For example, as well as cwiyr there’s also tacsi and ambiwlans.