Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd confirmed they ended their romantic relationship more than a year ago, with the Dallas Wings star tandem dismissing suggestions their relationship influenced the team’s decision to select Fudd with the No. 1 pick in this year’s WNBA draft.
The former University of Connecticut teammates announced their breakup on Friday’s episode of Fudd’s podcast and asked fans to stop sending hostile messages to them and their families.
“Before we continue with anything else, Paige and I have something we want to share with everyone,” Fudd said. “We’re not together anymore. I don’t know how else to say that.”
Bueckers confirmed the split, saying the two had been separated for more than a year, long before Fudd joined her in Dallas in April.
“We weren’t together before she was drafted,” Bueckers said. “So all these stories can go to bed. She didn’t get drafted because she was my girlfriend. She got drafted because she deserved it. She’s an incredible human, an incredible basketball player. And we’re still friends. We’re still cool.”
Fudd’s selection in April had drawn considerable attention to his relationship with Bueckers, who herself was Dallas’ first overall pick in 2025. The two became the first college teammates to go No. 1 in back-to-back WNBA drafts since fellow UConn players Tina Charles and Maya Moore in 2010 and 2011.
Fudd, an Associated Press All-American and one of the nation’s best outside shooters, helped UConn win the national championship in 2025 before being selected first overall in a draft with no clear consensus on top prospects. She quickly made her mark in Dallas, scoring six three-pointers against the New York Liberty in May to break the franchise single-game rookie record previously held by Bueckers.
The attention garnered by Fudd’s arrival in Dallas reflects a broader trend within the WNBA, where players’ romantic relationships have become the subject of intense speculation on social media, sometimes overshadowing their on-court accomplishments.
At the Wings’ media day in April, Bueckers answered questions about their relationship and denied having any influence on Dallas’ draft decision.
“Frankly, I believe that my personal relationship with Azzi is no one’s business but our own, and what we choose to share is entirely up to us,” she said.
“Azzi Fudd was a No. 1 overall draft pick because she earned it, and that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with who she is as a human being, who she is as a basketball player, her resilience, her strength and her career-best year at UConn,” Bueckers added. “It should be celebrated as such.”
The two first met at a USA basketball camp in 2017 and played together for four seasons at UConn, helping the Huskies end their nine-year NCAA title drought in 2025. Their relationship became public in July of that year, when Bueckers referred to Fudd as his girlfriend during an interview with the TikTok show WAG Talk.
On Friday, Bueckers said speculation surrounding their relationship had led to negative messages directed at both players and those close to them.
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“We’ve seen a lot of negativity. We’ve seen a lot of hate,” she said. “We were sent things. We were sent things to our family, to our friends.”
“I hate that we have to fix this, but just to control the narrative, crazy things have been said about us,” she added. “Sometimes in life there are just seasons. And sometimes in life two people are at different times in their lives.”
Bueckers said their split didn’t affect their ability to play together, noting that they already spent an entire season as teammates after their breakup.
“We are extremely professional,” she said. “We care about basketball and we’re still friends.”
Dallas finished the regular season with a franchise-record 27 wins, a 17-game improvement from the previous year, and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2023. They gave the eventual champion Golden State Valkyries a scare in the first round, pushing the series to a deciding third game.
Bueckers earned his second straight All-Star selection, while Fudd averaged 13.1 points in 30 games as a rookie and shot 39.7% from three-point range. Fudd’s season ended prematurely due to a right knee injury that required surgery.
Bueckers said the two will continue to support each other as friends and teammates.
“We still have each other’s backs. We’re still going to be good friends. We’re going to be good teammates. We’re going to be professionals,” she said. “At the end of the day, we always care about each other and want the best for each other.”
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