Orlando Pride Stars Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris Discuss Starting a Family Together
Motherhood is the next goal for Orlando Pride’s Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris. They’re still figuring out the details, but they know growing their family is the next step. The soccer superstar couple posed together for Allure‘s August 2020 cover, sharing in a joint interview that while they “talk about having kids a lot,” the fact is that “it takes an army” to raise a child.
Both Krieger and Harris were drafted for Orlando Pride in 2016. The athletes discussed their careers and what their future on the team and careers might look like.
“The unfortunate part is someone’s going to have to give in their career.”
The couple opened up about their plans for a family and expressed their reservations about possibly leaving their team. “The unfortunate part is someone’s going to have to give in their career,” Harris told Allure. “Which is not fair. Because we both love our jobs and have waited our whole lives for these moments. Just taking a year off, where does that fit in? I can’t even take a weekend off.”
“We’ve talked about surrogates, we’ve talked about adoption, and it’s just really tough because what — are we going to take the child everywhere? I mean, we’ve been home for seven days in the last three months,” she explained.
The Orlando Pride stars admit there are challenges but are confident they can make it work.
There are also “a lot of moms” on the team who make it work, Krieger said. For instance, Sydney Leroux Dwyer has two children, while Alex Morgan welcomed her first child, daughter Charlie Elena, on May 7. ( Morgan and Leroux Dwyer are also married to fellow soccer players).
“When we’re traveling, we carry the stroller and the [diaper] bag, and then she’s carrying the baby, or we’re carrying the baby and she’s getting all the stuff,” Krieger said of how everyone on the team pitches in to help the moms.
Harris and Krieger were talking about kids while planning their wedding.
The couple who were married last December in Miami explained that they were thinking about kids even before they tied the knot. “Originally, we just wanted to have a private ceremony,” Krieger told Allure.
“We were like, ‘Let’s save our money and worry about our future kids’ education.’ And it ended up being like, ‘Listen, let’s share our love with the world. We can make this [wedding] an event for our community.’ Sometimes I did feel like, ‘What are we doing?’ But no, we’re saving people’s lives [with our visibility], and that’s what matters most.”
The couple also voiced concerns about parenting with their busy schedules.
Traveling, training, and playing for a national team takes a lot of time and energy. The couple explains they even “have to make time” for their relationship “even though we see each other all the time,” Harris said.
The goalkeeper continued, “The team comes first. We actually don’t [often] stay in the same room [on the road]. If we are in the same room, we’re in separate beds because sleep is a huge part of our recovery.”
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Krieger, a defender explained that although it’s tough to maintain their relationship, they still make time for one another. “Sometimes, when we go to bed, we will say, ‘What was your favorite part of today?’ or ‘What do you want to accomplish tomorrow?’ This is a good way to check-in.”
With the Olympics rescheduled until 2021 and much of the world of sports on hold due to the pandemic, we think this couple might find some time for each other and to figure out the next step on their journey to motherhood.
