Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are engaged. Here's how the superstar soccer-basketball couple makes and spends its millions.
Meredith Cash
With three NCAA championships, five gold medals, and six World Cups between them, Megan Rapinoe (right) and Sue Bird are undoubtedly a sports power couple.Ethan Miller/Getty Images
- Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are engaged.
- The USWNT captain and WNBA legend began dating in 2016, and with three NCAA championships, five gold medals, and six World Cups between them, the pair undoubtedly became a sports power couple.
- Now that the couple is gearing up to tie the knot, Insider took a look at how Rapinoe and Bird make and spend their millions.
Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are engaged.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The pink-haired US Women's National Team captain proposed to longtime girlfriend and WNBA legend Sue Bird in late October.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The dynamic duo has been dating since 2016, and both have been dominating their respective sports in that span.
Michael Chow-USA TODAY Sports
They first met at a press event prior to the 2016 Olympics and, once they were in Rio de Janeiro for the games, Rapinoe went to a few of Bird's games.
Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
Since they both play for Seattle-based franchises — Rapinoe for the NWSL's OL Reign and Bird for the WNBA's Seattle Storm — they began to spend more time together back in the Emerald City.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Soon after that, they started dating.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Though Bird's friends and family had long known she was gay, the four-time WNBA champion was not out of the closet to the public when she first began dating Rapinoe.
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage
That would change quickly, as Bird often jokes that she would "be guilty by association with Megan anyway, so I had to come out."
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Source: ESPN
And shortly after she did, Bird and Rapinoe broke boundaries as the first same-sex couple featured in ESPN's The Body Issue.
Rapinoe has been loud and proud about her sexuality ever since she came out through an interview with Out Magazine in 2012.
Beck Starr/WireImage
Source: Out Magazine
And she was in multiple public relationships with women — including with USWNT legend Abby Wambach, former Australian national teamer Sarah Walsh, and singer-songwriter Sera Cahoone — before falling for Bird.
Megan Rapinoe (left) and Abby Wambach.
REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito
With three NCAA championships, five gold medals, and six World Cups between them, the pair undoubtedly became one of the most accomplished power couples in sports after they got together.
Michael Regan/Getty Images/Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Now that they're gearing up to get hitched, Insider took a look at how Rapinoe and Bird make and spend their millions.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Sue has been playing professional basketball since she was selected by the Seattle Storm with the first overall pick of the 2002 WNBA Draft.
Mike Albans/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
She's been with the franchise ever since, winning four WNBA championships and earning 11 WNBA All-Star nods in her nearly two-decade career.
Mary Holt-USA TODAY Sports
As one of the top players in the league, Bird has been among the highest-paid WNBA players for most of her career. Still, when Sue first joined the league and for a long time after, the maximum salary was still well under six figures.
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
In 2014, Bird signed a five year, $673,000 contract with the Storm. But with the WNBA's new collective bargaining agreement in 2020, Sue's salary bumped up to $215,000 per year.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Still, Bird has never made her real money in the WNBA. Instead, she headed overseas and struck endorsement deals for bigger paydays.
REUTERS/Petr Josek
Bird spent 10 years playing for various Russian Premier League teams, where she was eligible to make between $400,000 and $1 million per season depending on bonuses.
REUTERS/Petr Josek
And in the five years she spent with Spartak Moscow, Bird and fellow WNBA legend Diana Taurasi lived in a complimentary mansion with a pool and sauna and had access to their team owner's credit card to satisfy any of their needs.
REUTERS/Mike Segar
Source: SB Nation
She has stopped playing abroad in recent years, but in late 2018, Sue took on a new role as a basketball operations associate for the NBA's Denver Nuggets.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Source: WNBA
Bird told The Seattle Times she's earning a wage that's "appropriate to the job" but added that "this was more about the experience so the pay is a bonus."
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Source: The Seattle Times
Bird has supplemented her team salaries with endorsements. She's long been sponsored by Nike.
Brad Barket/WireImage
And she worked with brands like State Farm and American Express in the past, even shooting cheeky commercials for them.
All in all, Bird is estimated to have a net worth between $5 million and $8 million, according to multiple sources.
Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
Source: Project Hatch, FanBuzz
Rapinoe, meanwhile, is thought to have a net worth somewhere between $3 million and $3.5 million, various sources suggest.
AP Photo/David Vincent
Source: Celebrity Net Worth, Project Hatch
With the maximum NWSL salary at just $50,000, Megan's fortune did not come from the combined 12 years she's played in the US domestic league and its predecessor, the WPS.
Andy Mead/ISI Photos/Getty Images
Source: NWSL
And for the two seasons she played in Europe — for French powerhouse Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) — Rapinoe made a $168,000 annual salary.
John Walton - PA Images via Getty Images
Source: SBNation
While the USWNT's equal pay lawsuit has left much uncertainty about how much players earn for representing the United States, sources suggest that team salaries fall somewhere between $100,000 and $400,000 annually.
AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino
Source: The New York Times, The18.com
Rapinoe has a number of endorsement deals to supplement her income, the most lucrative of which is with Nike.
Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images
The brand made her a one-of-a-kind cleat to celebrate her 2019 Ballon d'Or.
Nike
And she even narrated an inspiring commercial for the company in 2020.
In addition to Nike, brands like Procter & Gamble, BodyArmor, Hulu, LUNA Bar, Smirnoff, Samsung, DJO Global, and Wildfang have all struck up deals with the pink-haired star.
And Rapinoe has joined USWNT teammates Christen Press, Tobin Heath, and Meghan Klingenberg in taking their marketing power into their own hands by founding a gender-neutral lifestyle brand called re-inc.
On top of all this, Megan signed a two-title book deal with Penguin Press after her historic 2019 World Cup performance.
Though the details of the agreement haven't been released, Rapinoe writes in her memoir that she's "totally cashing in" for reasons that she hopes aren't "exclusively seedy."
Since they've coupled up, Megan and Sue have taken on a number of joint ventures, including shooting a commercial for Symetra and becoming athlete ambassadors for Mendi, a CBD brand co-founded by Megan's twin Rachael.
Mendi
And they moved in together in 2018, according to The Seattle Times. The couple shares a condo in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle as well as an apartment in Connecticut.
With three NCAA championships, five gold medals, and six World Cups between them, Megan Rapinoe (right) and Sue Bird are undoubtedly a sports power couple.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Source: The Seattle Times
Their commercial for Symetra gave viewers a glimpse into life at their Connecticut home, where the couple quarantined for the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Symetra
"Working from home" for the sports stars involved Megan juggling a soccer ball in their bathroom (which appears to have a large, luxurious shower in the back).
Source: Symetra
They'd conduct video interviews from this room, which appears to be a bedroom or a home office.
Source: Symetra
As soon as they were safely able, the couple returned to their home in Seattle where they have a bit more space. Before the 2019 World Cup, Megan filmed the "Generation" video series with The Players' Tribune that featured shots of the couple's Seattle condo.
Source: The Players' Tribune
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Rapinoe had a soccer game on in the living room.
Source: The Players' Tribune
Their kitchen opens up into the rest of the space, with a glass table situated in front of their large window.
Source: The Players' Tribune
But perhaps the most unique — and undoubtedly Bird's favorite — part of their Seattle condo is "The Sue Closet."
Sue is something of a shoe connoisseur and a bona fide sneakerhead, as evidenced by the fact that THIS is what her shoe collection looked like after just three months in the WNBA's bubble.
She even has her own pair of Kyries called "Keep Sue Fresh" that she wore during the 2020 WNBA Finals.
Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
Source: Nike
Megan has gotten more into the sneaker game since dating Sue, but she generally prefers to splurge on clothes. She's even said she'd love to be a fashion designer.
Bird and Rapinoe have also spoken about their love of dining. Good food, good drinks, and good company are worth the price tag for these two.
They also both drive luxury cars. It looks like Megan gets around Seattle in a white BMW 4 series.
Source: The Players' Tribune
While Sue drives a black Range Rover sport (and parallel parks it like a champ).
Source: ESPN
And when their busy schedules permit, they like to jet off for getaways.
They escaped the cold of December in 2019 and stayed at a five-star hotel in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California.
They went to another luxurious resort — this time in St George's, Grenada — the year before with USWNT stars Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger.
And Rapinoe surprised Bird with a trip to Antigua with seven of their closest friends in honor of the point guard's 40th birthday in October 2020.
While there, the striker popped the question from the ledge of an infinity pool.
But despite all the pomp and circumstance of their superstar lifestyle, Megan and Sue continue to value advocacy above all.
Rapinoe was famously one of the first white athletes to kneel in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick as a form of protest against police brutality, and the move nearly cost her her future with the USWNT.
AP Photo/John Bazemore
She even more famously feuded with President Donald Trump after she was caught on video telling a journalist that she was not "going to the f------ White House" if the USWNT won the 2019 World Cup in France.
And she endorsed Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 US presidential election before supporting Joe Biden in the general.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Bird, meanwhile, was one of the architects of the WNBA players' recent move to endorse Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock.
Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
Of course, as a same-sex couple, they're also outspoken proponents of LGBTQ+ rights.
It still remains to be seen when they'll officially tie the knot, but in the interim, it's more than likely this dynamic duo will continue to make a major impact on and off of the court and field.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Now check out how Megan celebrated Sue's fourth WNBA championship from the league's Wubble:
AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
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