Naomi Osaka has a “little life update” to share—she’s expecting her first child.
The 25-year-old, who has been in a relationship with rapper Cordae since 2019, withdrew from the Australian Open on Sunday after weeks of speculation about her playing status for the Grand Slam tournament this year. On Wednesday morning Osaka revealed the happy news in an Instagram post, explaining that she “couldn’t wait to get back on the court,” but understandably, this year was shaping up to be a little different to what her fans expected.
Alongside a picture of a sonogram taken in December 2022, the tennis star shared a statement: “These few months away from the sport has really given me a new love and appreciation for the game I’ve dedicated my life to.”
She continued: “I know that I have so much to look forward to in the future; one thing I’m looking forward to is for my kid to watch some of my matches and tell someone, ‘That’s my mom.'”
The former world number one said she would take the year off playing sport, but she assured her fans that she would be back to play at the Australian Open in 2024.
“2023 will be a year that’ll be full of lessons for me and I’ll see you guys at the start of the next one cause I’ll be at Aus 2024.
“Love you all infinitely,” she finished.
Osaka, who is Haitian and Japanese, also added another slide to her post with the statement written in Japanese.
Osaka’s long-term partner Cordae is a 25-year-old rapper who first gained popularity for his remixes of rap tracks by Eminem and J. Cole.
After dropping his debut album, The Lost Boy, Cordae earned two Grammy nominations, and he was also named as a member of hip hop magazine XXL‘s Freshman Class of emerging rappers—Megan Thee Stallion and Roddy Ricch were also named in the prestigious list.
Cordae met Osaka at an LA Clippers game around 2018, and he’s admitted in previous interviews that he didn’t know who she was at the time having had little knowledge about tennis.
Still, he quickly caught up. While the pair kept their relationship under wraps for “almost a year”, they made their first public appearance together in December 2019 at another Clippers game.
“We kind of move very reclusively,” the rapper told GQ in 2021. “We don’t really post intimate moments, because I feel as though they’re sacred. A relationship is really a sacred thing. Once you let outside influences get into it, it becomes less sacred.”
Congratulations to the soon-to-be parents—no doubt they’re going to have one multi-talented kid on their hands.
