Basketball superstar-turned activist Maya Moore and her husband, Jonathan Irons, are now parents to a bouncing baby boy. Moore and Irons revealed the baby news exclusively on Good Morning America (GMA) on Tuesday, July 5.
The couple said they welcomed their first child, a son named Jonathan Hughston Irons Jr., in February of this year. Moore and Irons married in 2020, shortly after the latter was freed after spending over two decades in prison.
Moore, who won four Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) titles with the Minnesota Lynx and was named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2014, stepped away from the game at the height of her professional hoops career to focus full time on helping Irons overturn his conviction.
Moore helped Irons overturn his conviction
At 16 years old, Irons was tried and convicted as an adult by an all-white jury for the shooting and burglary at the home of 38-year-old Stanley Stotler. Irons maintained his innocence while behind bars, saying he was wrongly identified during the lineup.
Irons and Moore formed a close friendship in 2007, before the latter's freshman year at the University of Connecticut. Moore met Irons through a prison ministry she participated in with her extended family in Missouri, according to ESPN.
A Missouri judge overturned Irons' conviction in March 2020 after years of fighting his prison sentence, saying there were problems with how the case had been investigated and tried. The judge pointed out that a fingerprint report that would have proved Irons' innocence was not turned over to his defense team.
Irons told GMA in September 2020, when the couple announced their marriage, that he proposed to Moore on the night he was freed from prison. Irons recalled that when he got out, they were in the hotel room and had some friends. He said the celebrations were winding down, and they were extremely tired but still gassed up on the excitement.
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Couple teams up with Rudy Valdez for the documentary "Breakaway"
Irons added that he got down on his knees when it was just him and her in the room. He looked at Moore and asked, "Will you marry me?" Irons said Moore knew what was going on at that point with the UConn star saying yes to his marriage proposal.
The couple's unique love story and fight for justice are featured in an ESPN "30 for 30" documentary, "Breakaway," released last year. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Rudy Valdez captured the intricacies, personal details, and love story wrapped inside Irons' fight for justice with the help of his now-wife Moore.
Moore, who received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYs last year for her work with criminal justice reform, said their powerful story would likely resonate with many different people.
