Where did the term WAG actually come from?

It is a British tabloid coinage, short for wives and girlfriends. The acronym appeared in UK newspapers in the early 2000s and went mainstream during the 2006 World Cup, when the England squad's partners were photographed daily in Baden-Baden. It has never been an official or industry term, and several of the women it is applied to have publicly rejected it.

Do these rankings normally include widows and former partners?

Most published lists mix them in without saying so, which is why the totals jump around. Vanessa Bryant manages an estate rather than personal career earnings. Gisele Bündchen, who appears on many WAG lists, divorced Tom Brady in 2022. If a list does not date its relationships, treat the order as unreliable.

How much are NWSL clubs like the Kansas City Current actually worth?

Forbes valued the Current at $325 million in its April 2026 NWSL rankings, second only to Angel City FC at $340 million. Those numbers have climbed fast: the Current also posted a league-high $36 million in revenue in 2024, helped by CPKC Stadium being the first venue purpose-built for a women's professional team.

Does a huge social media following translate into a large net worth?

Not directly. Georgina Rodríguez has more than 70 million Instagram followers, yet published estimates of her wealth range from about $10 million to $35 million depending on the outlet. Follower counts drive rate cards for sponsored posts, but equity in a business is what moves a net worth figure, and most influencer income is not disclosed.

Do athletes' partners earn money from documentaries and reality television?

Some earn a lot. Georgina Rodríguez fronted the Netflix series I Am Georgina, which reached the platform's top 10 in 62 countries, though the fee was never disclosed. Coleen Rooney was reported by UK outlets to have been paid more than £1.5 million for I'm a Celebrity in 2024, where she finished runner-up.

Richest WAGs in Sports: Partners With Their Own Fortunes

Taylor Swift is the wealthiest partner of any professional athlete, and it is not close. Forbes put her net worth at $2 billion in 2026, built on a recording catalogue and the $2.2 billion Eras Tour, and she married Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on 3 July 2026. Every dollar of it predates the relationship. That is the pattern across this whole list: the money mostly belongs to the person, not the marriage.

The wealthiest athlete partners and what they actually do

The table below is assembled from named public estimates rather than a single ranking, because no reputable outlet publishes a “richest WAGs” list. Net worth figures are estimates, they move, and the dating matters — so each one is attributed.

Name	Partner (athlete)	Own career or business	Estimated net worth	Source and date
Taylor Swift	Travis Kelce (NFL)	Recording artist; Eras Tour; owns her re-recorded masters	~$2 billion	Forbes, 2026
Vanessa Bryant	Kobe Bryant (NBA, d. 2020)	President and CEO, Granity Studios; Mambacita apparel	~$600 million (estate)	Celebrity Net Worth, 2026
Alexis Ohanian	Serena Williams (tennis)	Reddit co-founder; venture investor in women’s sport	~$150 million	Celebrity Net Worth, 2026
Ayesha Curry	Stephen Curry (NBA)	Sweet July lifestyle and beauty brand; restaurants; cookbooks	~$60 million	Celebrity Net Worth, 2025
Coleen Rooney	Wayne Rooney (football)	Columnist, TV presenter, brand deals; I’m a Celebrity runner-up	~£15 million	UK press estimates, 2026
Georgina Rodríguez	Cristiano Ronaldo (football)	Netflix series; fashion and brand partnerships	$10m–$35m (wide disagreement)	Athlon Sports / Koimoi, 2026
Ciara	Russell Wilson (NFL)	Recording artist; co-founder, The House of LR&C; Ten To One rum	~$20 million	Parade, 2026
Brittany Mahomes	Patrick Mahomes (NFL)	Founding co-owner, Kansas City Current (NWSL)	No credible personal figure published	Forbes valued the club at $325m, April 2026
Kristin Juszczyk	Kyle Juszczyk (NFL)	Designer; co-founder, Off Season (NFL-licensed apparel)	No credible personal figure published	NFL / Fanatics announcement, January 2025

Two entries in that table have no number at all. That is deliberate. Brittany Mahomes and Kristin Juszczyk are arguably the two most commercially significant people on the list, and neither has a defensible published net worth, because the assets are private equity stakes and a young apparel company.

Kristin Juszczyk got her own NFL licence

Juszczyk spent years cutting up team jerseys and sewing custom pieces for herself and friends. In February 2024 the NFL gave her an apparel licensing deal, which is the part that matters: leagues do not hand out licences casually, and she is one of very few individual designers to hold one.

In January 2025 that became a brand. Off Season launched as a joint venture with the NFL, the NFLPA, Fanatics and Emma Grede, the co-founder of Skims. The debut drop was unisex puffers for five teams — the 49ers, Chiefs, Eagles, Lions and Bills — priced from $295 to just under $500. Her husband Kyle plays fullback for San Francisco, a position with one of the smaller pay scales in the sport. Read our breakdown of how the NFL salary cap works and the asymmetry becomes obvious.

Brittany Mahomes bought into a league, not a brand

Mahomes played professional soccer in Iceland before becoming a trainer, and in December 2020 she joined Angie and Chris Long as a founding co-owner of the Kansas City Current. Patrick Mahomes came into the ownership group two years later, in January 2023 — she was there first.

The Current then built CPKC Stadium, the first venue constructed primarily for a women’s professional team, and Forbes reported the club generated a league-high $36 million in revenue in 2024. In April 2026, Forbes valued the franchise at $325 million, behind only Angel City FC. For context on how quickly that market has moved, compare it with what the players themselves take home in our guide to the richest female soccer players.

Earned, inherited, and held in trust

Lumping these fortunes together hides three different things.

Swift, Ciara, Ayesha Curry and Alexis Ohanian earned theirs in music, food media, and technology. Ohanian sold Reddit long before he met Serena Williams and now invests heavily in women’s sport, while Williams has her own ownership stake in the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo.

Vanessa Bryant sits in a different category. She stewards Kobe Bryant’s estate — valued around $600 million, largely on the back of a $6 million BodyArmor investment that returned an estimated $200 million when Coca-Cola bought the brand — and runs Granity Studios as president and CEO.

And then there is the group building right now: Juszczyk, Mahomes, Georgina Rodríguez. Their eventual numbers depend on whether the businesses hold.

Why these net worth figures deserve a health warning

Georgina Rodríguez is the clearest example of the problem. Depending on which 2026 article you read, she is worth $10 million, $12–15 million, or $25–35 million. Same person, same year, a threefold spread.

Celebrity net worth aggregators estimate from visible assets and reported deals. Forbes applies a stricter methodology but only covers people it chooses to profile. Neither can see private company cap tables, endorsement contracts, or how much of a “couple’s” wealth is legally whose. Treat any single figure as a range with a wide error bar, and be suspicious of any list that gives you a number to the nearest thousand.

Names that get put on these lists and should not be

Two recurring errors are worth flagging before you trust any ranking you find elsewhere.

Sydney Sweeney appears on several 2026 “athlete partners” roundups. She has been in a relationship with music executive Scooter Braun since 2025. He is not an athlete.

Gisele Bündchen, still the highest-net-worth name on many of these lists, divorced Tom Brady in 2022. Including her is a choice a list should declare, not bury.

If you are here for the business side rather than the gossip, the rest of our earnings coverage works the same way — attributed figures, dated estimates. Start with the richest NBA players or the highest paid soccer players and compare what the athletes earn against what their partners built independently. In several cases on this page, the partner is ahead.