This year, two of the NWSL’s most iconic lesbians played their final game against each other. The OL Reign’s Megan Rapinoe and NJ/NY Gotham FC’s Ali Krieger both played in an incredible, action-packed game that ended with Gotham winning their first NWSL Championship. A bittersweet ending, of course, but with a little more emphasis on the sweet.
Over the past month, Ali Krieger and her longtime partner Ashlynn Harris have been in the beginnings of an inevitably messy divorce. The news dropped to the public weeks before Krieger’s retirement game and the updates have not stopped since. Krieger and Harris first met when they played together for the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2010. Soon after, they became teammates on the Orlando Pride in the NWSL, and in 2019, they got engaged and married in that same year. In 2021, the couple adopted their first child, Sloane. A year later, they then adopted a second child together, a son named Ocean. In 2022, Harris retired from professional soccer with two World Cup victories. Krieger followed suit this year. But days before the superstar defender’s farewell NWSL match, news dropped that Harris filed for divorce the month prior.
A few days after this news had dropped, it aired that Harris had gone on a date with Sophia Bush a few weeks prior. Bush has many friendships and connections in women’s soccer circles and is an investor for LA’s NWSL club, Angel City FC. Bush, Harris, and Krieger were very close friends, but after Bush and Harris attended the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June, where they were on a panel together, their friendship turned into something more. At this time, Bush was married to Grant Hughes and did not file for divorce until two months later. Harris formalized her split from Krieger a month after that and reportedly “came back right after Cannes, ended their marriage, and said there was nothing to even speak about regarding it. Just over.” Previously, Bush was an avid supporter of Harris and Krieger’s on social media. She congratulated them when they got married, and called their daughter Sloane “a lucky lady” when Harris and Krieger posted about the adoption.
In one of Krieger’s most recent Instagram posts of herself warming up for her final few retirement games, she captioned it, “Preparing for playoffs while in my Beyoncé lemonade era,” a reference to the album Beyoncé released about her husband, Jay-Z, cheating on her. Krieger’s post virtually confirmed that Harris was cheating on her during their relationship, but also suggested that she was not going to let that stop her from being successful. Her brother, Kyle, then commented on the post, writing a since-deleted comment, “Love you and so proud of you!! These h**s ain’t loyal!! But me and your fans are!” He has also recently made a post and the caption was about Ali and her journey to retirement: “going from being blindsided by the most heart-breaking news possible days before your retirement game — to leading Gotham FC through the playoffs to your first NWSL Championship victory?!?! It is really the most badass thing imaginable. … Truly a surreal amount of focus to sustain your mental/physical health with 2 little ones, dad in hospice, and while playing and training in your last season.”
Needless to say, the internet, the NWSL community, and the world has taken sides in this divorce situation, and most, if not all, are big Krieger fans. Even some of Harris’ former teammates made it clear that they were Team Ali, including Crystal Dunn, Alex Morgan, Sophia Smith, Midge Purce, and Jessica McDonald, who all commented positively on Krieger’s Instagram post. T-shirts with “Ali Krieger Fan Club” were also printed and worn by many of the same players, as well as Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird.
This story is still developing, and many details of the situation have not been revealed. However, the conclusion most people have come to is that Ali traded her wedding ring for a championship ring, arguably a huge upgrade when looking at the situation. Most recently, Harris has taken to her Instagram story reposting quotes like “Shade coming from a tree bearing no fruit could ever phase me. Carry on,” and “Anything you lose by speaking your truth isn’t a loss. It’s an alignment.” Interesting choices at best.
