SEATTLE — Well, queer women around the world will be mourning Friday night. This will forever be one of the moments where we ask each other, “Where were you on Friday, April 17, 2026, when Seattle sports power couple — hell, American culture power couple! — Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe announced via Instagram that they were breaking up? I’ll go first. I was on a Zoom call with a co-worker who — ...

Megan Rapinoe, left, and Sue Bird attend the New York# LWTSUMMIT at The Rooftop at Pier 17 on Oct. 7, 2025, in New York.

Bonnie Biess/TechFutures/Getty Images North America/TNS

SEATTLE — Well, queer women around the world will be mourning Friday night.

This will forever be one of the moments where we ask each other, “Where were you on Friday, April 17, 2026, when Seattle sports power couple — hell, American culture power couple! — Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe announced via Instagram that they were breaking up?

I’ll go first. I was on a Zoom call with a co-worker who — I kid you not — was wearing a Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe T-shirt.

We signed off and I got a shouty-caps text from my best friend: SUE AND MEGAN BROKE UP.

“NO!” I wrote back as the grief set in.

This one cuts deep, folks. And wow, it stings.

Sue and Megan were a sports fairy-tale match made in heaven. Seattle women’s basketball icon runs into Seattle women’s soccer icon in Brazil while they’re both representing Team USA at the 2016 Olympics, fall in love, start dating and the rest is history? Unscriptable!

And what’s not to like?

Seattle rejoiced in 2017 when we realized that everyone’s favorite girl-next-door Storm point guard Sue and the brash, lovable Seattle Reign firebrand who’s never been afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve Megan had somehow found their way to each other.

And, they were so good for each other. Bird has said that the brazen Rapinoe, one of the first big-name female athletes to come out publicly in 2012, helped her understand why it was important for young women to know that Sue could be her authentic self, and it motivated her to go public with her own sexual orientation.

The always serious Sue, devoted to her fitness routine and her role as floor general and spiritual leader of the Storm, helped Megan, who’d suffered numerous knee surgeries in her career, get serious about her own fitness routine and motivated her to reach new heights, keying an international soccer career renaissance.

That’s part of what made these two so endearing to legions of queer women everywhere. In a sea of toxic celebrity relationships, we’d found one where both women seemingly just made each other better.

And we loved watching it happen. We loved watching them rock the world with their athletic feats, but we also appreciated how much they seemed to care about people, specifically underrepresented people and everyone who’s ever had to fight for their rights.

Sue and Megan’s podcast “A Touch More” was a product of the COVID-19 pandemic, when society shut down, everyone was bored and craving human connection, and Sue and Megan endearingly started chit-chatting about life, love and sports on Instagram live.

Sue and Megan founded a production company (also named “A Touch More”) together to — per its website — “center the stories of revolutionaries who move culture forward.”

Sue and Megan were part of Seattle. They were seen out and around, supporting each other at Storm and Reign games, having a drink at the Wild Rose, buying sneakers, eating at How to Cook a Wolf, wandering the town. They were part of our Pacific Northwest culture and we loved watching this wholesome relationship play out in public.

In the decade Sue and Megan were together — six years of which they were engaged — they saw each other through the peaks of their trailblazing careers.

Megan soared to the height of her prowess in the summer of 2019, when she led the USWNT to a World Cup trophy amid the U.S. women’s fight for equal pay. Sporting a shock of pink hair that would be emblazoned on bumper stickers and posters everywhere, Megan, the USWNT’s co-captain at the time, scored a penalty kick goal in the final against the Netherlands that helped the U.S. secure gold.

She made waves off the pitch that summer too when she declared during the tournament that she would not go to the White House if the USWNT were to win the World Cup and earn an invitation from President Donald Trump.

Megan’s never been afraid to stand up for causes she believes in. She was one of the first athletes to publicly side with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick when he started kneeling instead of standing during the pregame national anthem in protest of how Black people were treated in the U.S. She played a large role in the U.S. women’s quest for equal pay, and she’s been an outspoken advocate of transgender rights.

Then there’s Sue. Perhaps the greatest point guard who’s ever played the game of basketball. With Megan by her side, it seemed like the face of the Storm just could not fail — and also, that she’d found the fountain of youth.

Those of us who watched Sue come into herself in that second half of her career with the Storm knew that with every no-look pass and every 3-point jumper Sue Bird made, we were watching a legend make history.

The plastic face mask she wore to protect her broken nose in the 2018 WNBA Finals series against the Mercury? Iconic.

The 14 fourth-quarter points she scored against the Mercury in Game 5 of the 2018 WNBA Finals to will the Storm to their third WNBA title? Unforgettable.

Sue is beloved not just because Sue has won at every level of basketball and everything she’s ever put her mind to, Sue is beloved because, like Megan, she tried throughout her career to use her platform and fame to fight for people and causes she believes in — women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, the Black community.

Together, Sue and Megan were a force to be reckoned with. Couple goals for a whole generation of queer women, female athletes and even — dare we say it — all the straight people! Especially because they were the vanguard for an entire segment of women who, through Sue and Megan, finally found the courage to be out, proud and loud amid the often closeted locker rooms of women’s professional sports. They smashed the stigma, together.

And while we’ll always be grateful to them for leading the way, the world feels a little more dour with the power couple now apart.