Veteran Basketball Player Lauren Jackson Pregnancy and Son-Born Post Retirement, Ever-Married/Boyfriend/Partner?

Lauren Jackson, a retired Australian professional woman basketball player, has been an inspirational figure to many woman athlete in the country because she tackled a lot of hardships and sacrifices for her accomplishments. 

In her 19 years long decorated career, the Albury, Australia native played in both forward and center position in reputed Basketball teams, including Australian Institute of Sport (1997-1999), Canberra Capitals (1999-2006), Seattle Storm (2001-2012), Samsung Bichumi (2007), Spartak Moscow Region (2007-2010), Canberra Capitals (2009-2013, 2014-2016), Ros Casares Valencia (2011), Heilongjiang Shenda (2013), and the Australian National basketball team. 

The veteran WNBA player is one of the leading personas regarding games played, field goals, three points, and turnover percentage.

She has clinched numerous WNBA and WNBL MVP awards, 7 WNBA All-Star, WNBA rebounding champion 2007, and Defensive player of the year 2007 among others.

Her tussle with legendary Lisa Leslie, in the 2000's Olympics gold, medal match that ignited with Jackson ripping out Leslie’s hair extension is deemed one of the major controversies of her career.

In 2018, ESPN ranked her alongside sports giants LeBron James, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, and Usain Bolt in their 'World’s top 20 most dominant athletes of the 21st-century list.' 

Four-time Olympic representee for Australia, Lauren sacrificed even her relationships and motherhood in the hopes of getting an Olympic award.  

Remembering Lauren Jackson In Basketball Court:

Basketball has always been in her blood. 

Thanks to her parents; Gary Jackson (father) and Maree Bennie (mother), both the former national basketball team member.

Then 17-year-old Lauren playing with her parents; Gary and Maree (Photo: newsapi.com)

Growing up in Albury, she started learning basketball in her backyard through her mother since she was a four-year-old apart from other sports like athletics, tennis, and netball. 

A scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS) accompanied her heroics at the Murray High School;  the AIS team led by young Lauren would go on to win Women’s National Basketball League in 1998 to 1998. 

Before being drafted into the Seattle Storm of WNBA in 2001, she played for Canberra Capitals in between 1999-2006. She returned to capitals multiple times for 4 years in 2009 and final two years in 2014.

With exclusive trash talks and aggressive “Assassin-like” play, she flourished while at Seattle to lead them to two WNBA titles, in 2004 and 2010 with MVP performance in the latter.

Jackson, who stands at the height of 6 ft 5 in, had also been to Asia and Europe playing for WBC SPARTAK Moscow in Russia, Ros Casares Valencia in Spain, Heilongjiang Shenda in China, and Samsung Bichumi in Korea.

Cited as the best basketball asset of Australia, the New South Wales native, Lauren was brilliant with the Australian-under-20 team as 14 years old. She joined the Australian Women's National Basketball Team, The Opals when she was16 years old. 

Captaining the side, she put on three Australian Player of the Year performance helping them to the World Championship title in 2006 and gold in the Commonwealth Games 2006.

Previously, she was always unlucky with Olympics as her two final appearances had yielded no gold.

In 2016, the award-winning basketball player finally announced her injury led retirement in the Opals training camp in Canberra while training for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Post-retirement, the basketball legend didn't forfeit her basketball dream, as she has been heading the women's division of Australian Basketball Alliance and fulfilling the executive role of Commercial Operations Manager/Board of Director for WNBL Melbourne Bloomers. 

Lauren accomplishments in the history of the women basketball as a player were undoubtedly breathtaking and she is expected to do exactly the same post her retirement, but her accomplishments came at a cost. 

Lauren's Struggle For Fame

She dealt with series of injuries during her career and even sacrificed her relationships and motherhood in the pursuit of an Olympic Gold. Explaining her sacrifices, she talked to ESPN in July 2012, where she stated, 

"It's really difficult being a female and being a professional athlete, because there are so many things you have to take into consideration. And if I had have had kids at an early age, I may have regretted it because I wouldn't have been able to do what I have done."

In the interview, she also mentioned about the hardships a woman athlete had to face while settling down, saying,   

"I've definitely loved. I've loved. I've been so fortunate. But it's impossible to maintain anything, being a professional athlete, and being a woman, because you can't settle down and have a family unless you're willing to give up your career."

The flag bearer at the 2012's Summer Olympics pulled her meniscus out of the root of the bone that resulted in hurting her knee in China in 2013. Her injury ended her career and she even had to miss the 2016's Olympics, about which she later explained in her retirement speech. 

Later, in March 2016, Lauren bid farewell to the professional basketball via the Canberra Times, leaving behind a legacy. In her statement, she stated,  

“Today I’m announcing my retirement from the love of my life, basketball. It took me all over the world, gave me friendships forever so thank you, everyone for being there,”

Right after her retirement, she made the big announcement that she was pregnant with her first child in October 2016.

Lauren Jackson's Pregnancy, Post-Retirement, Miscarriage

Sharing a tweet on 1 October 2016, Jackson took her gratitude to her people and fans for the congratulatory tweets through her Twitter post on Saturday.

Previously in an interview with Fairfax Media in February 2016, she had talked about her desire to raise her own family saying, 

"Absolutely I want to have a family ... If I don't do some work to get my knee strong, regardless of what happens with the Olympics, I'm not sure if I'd be able to play one-on-one with my kids in the backyard."

In the same interview, she added her opinions stating, 

"That's something I experienced in my childhood and I loved. I definitely want to be able to share with my children [in the future]. Whatever sport they might choose, I want to be a part of it and be active.

Later in February 2017, she gave birth to a son named Harry and also celebrated her first mothers day since the birth of her son via Twitter. 

Though the former basketball player announced her expecting a child in 2016, she did not disclose the identity of the soon-to-be father. Thus, it remained unclear whether she was trying to keep her husband/boyfriend info private or she was set to raise the child on her own. 

But later in an interview with the Herald Sun in 2017,  it was revealed that she was raising Harry as a single mom. 

If you don't know, Lauren had an unfortunate miscarriage in 2013. 

Lauren Jackson Past Dating Affairs, Gay Activist

In an interview with theaustralian.com.au in August 2013, she was asked about her dating life and how it was difficult to maintain both her professional and personal relationship hand in hand. She replied hinting there was no boyfriend in the scene at the time stating, 

"It's been really difficult, to the point where I was ready to wash my hands of it. But there are always prospects. Hopefully I'll find Mr Right."

In 2008, UN-appointed Champion for UN Women National Committee, Lauren was again linked with another athlete, Yao Ming in 2008's Beijing Olympics after she hugged him at the closing ceremony of the event.  

However, Jackson denied the relationship soon after.

Ming hugging Jackson (Photo: liverampup.com)

Likewise, she was rumored to be sharing a lesbian relationship with the American basketball player, Diana Taurasi in 2007, but the rumor was never verified.

The Macquarie University graduate, Lauren Jackson, a gay marriage supporter, is known for keeping her voice heard when it comes to the matter of the gay community. She even bashed WNBA star, Sophia Young for her anti-gay remarks in 2013.