A Beginner’s Guide to WAG World

It’s a WAG, WAG, WAG world, and we’re just living in it. Wives and girlfriends of professional athletes are changing the face of professional sports, and creating lucrative business opportunities for themselves in the process.

But WAGs are not a monolith, rather they come in a variety of flavors. Some WAGs are celebrities in their own right, others had no public profile before dating an athlete.

There’s HABs and Doubles Partners, Retired WAGs and Influencer WAGs. There’s so many WAG categories, in fact, we decided to make a handy glossary to break them all down.

Here’s our—by no means comprehensive—guide to WAG World.

Bonafide WAGs:

A Bonafide WAG is a person who wasn’t well known to the public before dating or marrying an athlete, but has since become famous on and offline by virtue of their WAG-hood.

Think: Ayesha Curry, Brittany Mahomes, Claire Kittle, Morgan Riddle, and Savannah James.

Celebrity WAGs:

A Celebrity WAG is a person who was already famous for one reason or another before getting with their athlete, and has blended their WAG-dom into their existing celebrity.

Think: Ciara, Gabrielle Union, Hailee Steinfeld, Sophia Bush, and of course, Taylor Swift.

Influencer WAGs:

An Influencer WAG is similar to a Celebrity WAG, but they were social media famous before coupling up.

Think: Alix Earle, Glennon Doyle, Hannah Ann Sluss, and Sydney Warner.

Retired WAGs:

A retired WAG is a person whose athlete has retired from their sport (but you can truly never retire from being a WAG).

Think: Brooklyn Decker, Cherelle Griner, Hannah Davis, and Kylie Kelce.

Ex-WAGs:

An ex-WAG is a person who was once married to or dating an athlete, but has since called it quits.

Think: Alex Cooper, Gisele Bündchen, Jessica Simpson (Tony Romo era), or Kristin Cavallari.

Doubles Partners:

Doubles partners are two athletes who date each other, and serve as WAGs (or HABs) for each other, respectively.

Think: Jonathan Owens and Simone Biles, Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird, Olivia Dunne and Paul Skenes.

HABs:

A HABs is a husband or boyfriend of a famous female athlete who has become a household name in his own right, or already had a high-profile career but outside of sports.

Think: Connor McCaffery, Alexis Ohanian