A lifelong love. Chris Paul and Jada Paul (née Crawley) have been together for a long time; after all, they met while attending competing high schools.
“We met at high school. “I’m a year older than him, so in high school it wasn’t cool to be a senior dating a junior,” the fashion designer told xoNecole in June 2014, before the NBA player revealed that he requested a mutual acquaintance to set them up.
He told the story: “I asked her friend if she would introduce me [to Jada] and here were are, eleven years later.” The two also went to Wake Forest University together before Chris got drafted into the NBA in 2005.
In September 2011, about a decade after their first meeting, the couple married in their home state of North Carolina. “Our relationship has been a progression,” Jada explained to Essence magazine at the time. “I feel protected around Chris. “He’s extremely protective.”
The former Los Angeles Clippers star was equally gushing about his partner, telling the site that “I truly love Jada.” She has been there through the ups and downs. Basketball won’t last forever. [But] Jada and I really enjoy spending time together.
At their star-studded wedding, which included LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Gabrielle Union, and Kevin Hart, among others, the couple celebrated their son, Chris Jr., who was born two years before. “We never knew it was possible to love someone as much as we love each other until you came along,” Chris and Jada penned in a letter to their child in the wedding program.
Six years after their wedding, Chris and Jada, who had daughter Camryn in August 2012, acknowledged their continued love for one another in a pair of touching anniversary posts. “6 years later, I still consider myself the happiest man in the world to be able to name you my wife!!!! #HadToGetThatLentOffForHer #ItsGoodForHandStrength #GoodGame,” the Phoenix Suns star wrote on Instagram in September 2017.
Jada, for her part, called her husband her “favorite for life” in an Instagram post, adding that they will stick together through “the good, the bad, and everything in between.”
In June 2022, she thanked Chris as a father and partner by posting a funny video of him with his family over the years. “Happy Father’s Day to one of the best to ever do it!” Jada wrote on Instagram at the moment. “You never cease to amaze me, and the children and I are eternally thankful! I adore you, @cp3, and thank you for being my partner in parenting crime lol. 💕”
Scroll down to view the whole timeline of Chris and Jada Paul’s incredible romance:
Early 2000s
Chris and the entrepreneur met while attending competing high schools in their hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He asked a mutual friend for their phone number, and the two started dating when Jada was a senior and Chris was a sophomore.
2003
The cofounders of the Chris Paul Foundation attended Wake Forest University in the early 2000s, though Chris left after his sophomore year to pursue a career in the NBA. He was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets (now the Pelicans) in 2005.
May 2009
In May 2009, the couple had their baby, Christopher Emmanuel Paul II (often known as Chris Jr. or “Little Chris”). “Everyone knows I love children, so to have my own son? “There’s nothing like it,” Chris told Essence in September 2011.
September, 2011
Chris and Jada married in their home state of North Carolina over ten years after meeting. “It was important for us to get married… where we’re from and where we met,” Jada told Essence back then.
August, 2012
Chris and Jada’s daughter Camryn was born about a year after they married. “I adore the gorgeous Black young lady you are and much more the one you are becoming!! “Daddy loves you forever!!” the athlete said about his daughter in August 2022.