Yahoo Finance Giannis Antetokounmpo's Fiancée Mariah on Finding Her 'Own Identity' by 'Giving Back' to Milwaukee (Exclusive)
The mother-of-three admits she "struggled personally" as the significant other of an NBA star until she found purpose through community outreach
Michael Loccisano/Getty
Mariah Riddlesprigger and Giannis AntetokounmpoMilwaukee has become "home" to NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo's family since the Bucks drafted him in 2013, and now his fiancée, Mariah Riddlesprigger, is opening up about finding her "own passion" in the city through their family foundation.
"For the longest time, I struggled personally. What do I want to do?" Riddlesprigger, 31, tells PEOPLE. "It's hard to find your own identity sometimes because your life is so much them, your significant other, and what they do."
The Fresno, California, native and Antetokounmpo, 29, share three children together — sons Liam, 3, and Maverick Shai, 2, plus their newborn daughter Eva Brooke, born in September 2023.
"I'm so much more than just his partner or his fiancée, and I wanted to find what I'm passionate about," says Riddlesprigger. "It's taken a while, but now that I've figured it out. It's exciting, and I have so much drive to figure out how I can help other people with our family's platform."
"Since college, it's always been about giving back," Riddlesprigger says of her personal motivators. "When I was in college, I wanted to work for NBA Cares or a nonprofit, but I just didn't know exactly what I wanted to do."
Last year, the NBA star's family launched the Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation (CAFF), "a social impact organization" that aims to "unlock the potential inside every person—no matter where they start out or what difficulties they face."
Riddlesprigger says when she was preparing for the birth of her first son that it really opened her eyes to the community's needs, especially considering the cost of diapers. "We didn't realize how expensive diapers are until we were like, 'Whoa, diapers are expensive,' " she admits.
"Just because we have the money to pay for diapers doesn't mean it's still not a shocking experience. I'm not thinking about myself in that. I'm thinking about other people. This is a basic need that all children should be clean," she continues.
After Liam's birth in February 2020, Riddlesprigger wasn't feeling up for another baby shower before welcoming Maverick in August 2021. "Everybody wanted us to do a baby shower for Mav, but we didn't need anything, and it was so close to Liam being born," she says. "But we wanted to do something special for Mav's birth, so we started the diaper drive."
The couple held their first BIG Give Back diaper and fund drive — aptly titled Maverick's Diaper Mission — in Milwaukee in 2021. And Riddlesprigger says it was "a no-brainer" for CAFF to partner with her for this year's drive.
Last month, Riddlesprigger and Antetokounmpo, along with support from the CAFF, distributed over 30,000 diapers to 195 families in just two hours. The event also raised $188,000 for Milwaukee families.
"Being able to help the Diaper Mission grow is exactly what we want to do. We want to help other organizations grow. We want to help Milwaukee grow. We want to help Athens and Nigeria and other places important to us in the world prosper and help the people there because we've been helped a lot throughout our lives," says Riddlesprigger.
"This year is the first time that CAFF has taken over the diaper drive and really, really took a lead on it and made it more of our thing benefiting the Diaper Mission," Riddlesprigger says, adding that "there's a lot more in the works there for us."
Looking ahead to 2024, the sky's the limit for CAFF and Riddlesprigger. "We've hired staff with CAFF, so being able to dedicate our time to figuring out what we're going to do with this passion, this drive to give back, but now we can focus it and really focus it in areas that need it," she says.
Next, Riddlesprigger says CAFF is "meeting with other organizations, and we have more ideas of where we want to be present in the community, and it's just a stepping stone to get to be able to help more people."
Supporting one another comes naturally for the NBA star and his family, his fiancée says. "That's just how the family is," she explains, noting, "If Giannis or someone is passionate about something, we all get behind each other, and we help them move forward with it. So that's what they did, and it's pretty amazing."
Riddlesprigger says it's "amazing" and "heartwarming" to see how her family is impacting the community — especially Antetokounmpo. "It shows that he's so much more than a basketball player," she says of her fiancé.
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"Yeah, people enjoy watching him on the screen or watching him in person run up and down the court and do all these amazing things, but off the court people don't get to see 100% of him," she explains. "He's this genuine person, and I think it's just amazing. He enjoys doing what he does and meeting people."
Personally for Riddlesprigger, finding purpose in Milwaukee through community outreach is "really exciting," she says. "Now, I'm able to focus so much time on being a mom but also something I'm passionate about." So that's really exciting. That's something I love."
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