For former New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson, pursing a relationship with his now wife Ciara was an easy decision.
“I knew exactly when I met her, she was the one,” Wilson declared on the “Baby, This is Keke Palmer” podcast.
He admitted that he “had actually told somebody I knew before, I was like — somebody asked me who you see yourself with, and I was like, ‘I don’t know,’ I was like, ‘Ciara.’ They’re like, ‘She’s not gonna like you.’ I said, ‘Why, she ain’t met me yet.”
But before he actually met Ciara, he had dinner with his pastor, where Wilson discussed his five non-negotiables for a spouse.
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“We were sitting there talking, and I’m writing like five non-negotiables. He said five non-negotiables,” Wilson recalled. “You said negotiables in your sermon. I said you weren’t talking about this, but I believe in marriage. Like I said earlier, marriage is a business deal. It’s life, it’s a partnership, it’s this, that, and the other.”
“I said my five non-negotiables,” he continued. “What I want in a woman, number one, I want a woman of faith, right, who believes in God. A woman who’s faithful, not just to me, but to everything she does. When her yes is yes or no is no. A woman who’s independent. Didn’t have to be Ciara, but somebody who had their own identity, and it wasn’t just Russell’s wife. I wanted somebody who was also someone who was similar to my mom. When my mom was helping my dad when he was on his deathbed, my dad used to always say, you know, you’re always going to be good because of your mama. And then I wanted somebody who would tilt the room when they walk in the room, so that the whole room would change.”
Wilson wrote down and actually prayed over those five things that same night. But Wilson’s pastor wanted to know why he only chose five.
“Five is the number of grace. It’s a marriage, and life is by grace,” the athlete explained.
Ciara and Wilson met each other three days later. They started dating in 2015 and wed the following year.
The couple have a blended family with four children: Future Zahir, Sienna Princess, Win Harrison and Amore Princess.
Wilson’s intentional list of five non-negotiables proved that his meeting with Ciara was far more than a chance encounter — it was the result of clear intent, unwavering faith and a prepared heart.
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