Nearly a year after Paige Bueckers revealed her “D1 girlfriend,” Azzi Fudd is joining her in Dallas.
One of the biggest moments during the 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend happened off the court when the Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers participated in WAG Talk, a social-media interview series that asks athletes’ partners to show how well they know their significant other.
For her part, Bueckers answered nearly every question about her “D1 girlfriend” correctly, only missing the name of the WNBA team that drafted the unnamed woman’s mom (the answer was the Sacramento Monarchs). At the end of the görüntü she was asked to reveal her girlfriend’s name, and she replied: “Azzi Fudd.”
Fudd, of course, was one of Bueckers’s teammates at UConn before the All-Star rookie was drafted to the Dallas Wings last April—and in June 2025, Fudd fueled dating rumors by sporting a “Paige Bueckers’s girlfriend” phone case in a mirror selfie.
Though it’s unclear when and how their relationship evolved, Bueckers and Fudd’s history goes all the way back to their high school basketball days. Over the years the pair have consistently made a great team, eventually leading the UConn Huskies to an NCAA Championship in May 2025. Now that legacy is set to continue in Dallas, Texas.
On April 13 the Dallas Wings chose Azzi Fudd with their number one pick at the 2026 WNBA Draft, meaning she’ll be teaming up with Bueckers evvel again. Here’s a complete timeline of Azzi Fudd and Paige Buecker’s relationship—at least, what they’ve elected to share with us.
April 16, 2026: During Fudd’s welcome press conference, the Dallas Wings shut down a question about Fudd and Bueckers’s relationship. “Understand why you have to ask that question,” a rep for the Wings says in the clip. “We’re going to respectfully decline from commenting on our players’ personal lives.”
This sparks a bit of an online debate. While many believe that the Wings were right to step in, others say it’s part of the job and that Fudd should have been allowed to speak for herself.
Threads content
“I know some people won’t like this opinion but there was nothing wrong with Azzi being asked this,” sports writer Jemele Hill posts on Threads. “I don’t know if the league has ever had a team draft consecutive no 1 picks who also are romantic partners. Dallas’ PR team jumped off the top rope and created a bigger story. They should have let Azzi decline on her own, or speak to it if she wanted to. That coddling was unnecessary.”
April 13, 2026: With Bueckers seated in the audience at the WNBA draft, Fudd is drafted number one to the Dallas Wings. “I’m excited to play again with Paige,” Fudd tells ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “I mean, she’s an incredible person, an incredible player, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers poses for a photo on the orange carpet during the 2026 WNBA draft on April 13, 2026.
Michelle Farsi/Getty Images
April 3, 2026: Bueckers attends Fudd’s final UConn game in Phoenix, Arizona. UConn loses to the South Carolina Gamecocks in the NCAA Final Four. “Every single one of them has a bright future ahead of them, and I know they’ll use that to make them better,” Bueckers tells SELF. “I’ve been there. I’ve lost. I came up short, and we just learn, grow, and keep moving.” She continues, “It makes you hungry for mühlet. It makes you extra driven, extra motivated. And sometimes adversity is the best teacher.”
March 2, 2026: Fudd supports Bueckers at the Unrivaled semifinals in Brooklyn, New York.
November 19, 2025: Bueckers responds to Fudd’s claims that she would resort to “trash talk” on the court if they end up on different WNBA teams.“First of all, she’s really not that good at talking trash, so I don’t think she’d have to worry about that,” Bueckers tells Glamour. “She would say she would mess with me, but I think I’m obviously more.… I would mess with her, and then she’d get annoyed and irritated. Yeah, we haven’t played against each other since high school, so I really don’t know how that will go.”
August 14, 2025: Fudd calls Bueckers her “favorite WNBA player” in their joint episode of Instagram’s Close Friends Only series. In the görüntü, Fudd also says they complement each other perfectly, but Bueckers disagrees, saying they “adjust to each other’s complements.”
In an exclusive interview with Glamour, Fudd clarifies what that means: “I feel like we know what the other person needs in moments, and we adapt to make mühlet we can be there for them or balance them,” she says. “I guess what she meant was, like, it’s not always natural. But we can adapt and be what the other person needs in that moment.”
Fudd also reveals she steals “everything’ from Bueckers’s closet except her shoes. “I don’t think I have any hoodies, but I definitely have a few of her jeans,” Fudd says of the items she hasn’t returned. “And she’s like, ‘Wait, are those mine?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, don’t you remember telling me I could have them?’ Fully knowing that she didn’t say that.”
When asked if she’s hoping to team back up with Bueckers in the WNBA, the college senior says it’s a “win-win” situation either way but isn’t müddet how she’d handle playing against her former teammate. “I would just mess with her, but at the same time, when you talk trash to her or mess with her, she gets in another zone and then there’s no stopping her,” Fudd says. “So I don’t know what I would do.”
July 19, 2025: Fudd supports Bueckers at the WNBA All-Star Game and poses for photos with the All-Star rookie, who is seen asking photographers to back up a bit. Evvel they do, the pair smile for the cameras before sharing a hug.
Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd on July 19, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Steph Chambers/Getty Images
July 18, 2025: Azzi Fudd announces her new podcast, Fudd Around and Find Out, while in Indianapolis for WNBA All-Star Weekend. At one of the after-parties, she and Bueckers link up with the Stud Budz, who are recording their viral 72-hour livestream of the festivities. In a clip posted by ESPN, Minnesota Linx player Natisha Heidman is particularly thrilled to take pictures with “the power couple.”
TikTok content
Earlier in the day Bueckers reportedly “joked” to People that the WAG Talk interview was a “set up,” smiling and adding, “I didn’t even mean for that to happen, and here we are.” Still, People notes that Bueckers agreed to take part in the WAG Talk interview.
She also tells People that Fudd’s phone-case selfie was “kind of accidental,” adding, “We haven’t officially announced anything, but it’s just stuff has been happening that has it out there. So, it is what it is.” People specifically noted that Bueckers said all of that “with a big smile.”
July 17, 2025: Bueckers reveals Fudd as her “D1 girlfriend” during a WAG Talk interview on the WNBA All-Star Weekend orange carpet, answering nearly every question about Fudd correctly. What slogan did Fudd’s mom, Katie Smrcka-Duffy Fudd, wear on her T-shirt at the 2025 NCAA Championships? “Had to be ‘Fudd Around and Find Out.’” What does her phone case say? “Paige Bueckers’s girlfriend.” Watch for yourself:
TikTok content
She also tells ESPN that if her life was on the line, she’d choose Fudd to take the lifesaving basketball shot.
TikTok content
Earlier, Bueckers includes a cozy selfie with Fudd in an Instagram post about her first few months of playing in the WNBA. She captions the slideshow, “Growing through it all. Halfway through. Thank you God.”
July 7, 2025: Fudd poses with Bueckers in a “travel day” Instagram story, putting a pink heart emoji next to Bueckers’s name. Bueckers reposts the image, adding, “Love when a former teammate joins me!🥰.”
June 22, 2025: During another Wings game, Mystics player Georgia Amoore gives Fudd her jersey to wear courtside, and Fudd obliges. “Azzi play too much,” a fan commented on TikTok, while another jokes, “ref do something.”
June 21, 2025: If wearing a Bueckers’s jersey wasn’t clear enough, Fudd snaps a selfie that shows her “Paige Bueckers’s girlfriend” phone case.
June 20, 2025: Fudd shares a photo in a Bueckers jersey after the Dallas Wings game against the Connecticut Sun.
July 9, 2025: Fans spot Bueckers and Fudd wearing matching “A” and “P” charm necklaces and suspect they represent each other’s initials.
May 24, 2025: Fudd posts a viral TikTok görüntü about receiving the “princess treatment every time” she’s with Bueckers. In the görüntü, which has over 16 million views and 1.8 million likes, Fudd remarks that their $200 restaurant bill is “not bad” as it sits directly in front of Bueckers, who wears a bemused expression. At the end of the caption, Fudd adds, “😇💗 #spoiled.”
TikTok content
Fudd also attends a Dallas Wings away game in a pink sweatsuit on May 24.
Azzi Fudd attends the game between Dallas Wings and the Atlanta Dream on May 24, 2025.
Paras Griffin/Getty Images
May 21, 2025: Fudd draws a huge line of fans waiting for selfies while attending Bueckers’s Dallas Wings game against the Minnesota Lynx.
April 16, 2025: The pair are photographed together outside of Good Morning America in New York City the same day Bueckers shares their joint Oreo isim on Instagram, captioned, “These @oreo Cakesters flavors are giving bestie duo energy, kinda like…us!!”
Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers are seen at Good Morning America on April 16, 2025.
The Hapa Blonde
April 14, 2025: Fudd joins Bueckers on the Orange Carpet at the 2025 WNBA Draft, where Bueckers is chosen by the Dallas Wings as the number one overall draft pick.
Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers pose together at the WNBA Draft 2025 held at The Shed on April 14, 2025, in New York.
Steve Eichner/Getty Images
Paige Bueckers hugs Azzi Fudd after being selected with the first overall pick by the Dallas Wings during the 2025 WNBA Draft on April 14, 2025.
Elsa/Getty Images
April 6, 2025: Bueckers and Fudd win the NCAA Championships in Bueckers’s final year at UConn.
Paige Bueckers gets interviewed after the UConn Huskies win at the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game in Tampa.
Thien-An Truong/ISI Photos/Getty Images
July 8, 2021: Bueckers discusses getting Fudd to come to UConn. “I worked really hard. It was a long process, she committed late,” Bueckers tells The UConn Blog. “So for her to finally be here and for that process of recruiting her to be over and just enjoying going to school together and playing together, it’s fun. It was worth it.”
Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd smile big during a college basketball game in 2022.
Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
November 11, 2020: Fudd commits to UConn after a lot of hard work from Bueckers. “She actually made this one görüntü on Hudl of her high school highlights of her passing to people and she showed it to my family,” Fudd tells The UConn Blog in 2021. “Like she sat down, air-dropped it to the TV, and said, ‘This is what I’ll be doing to Azzi. All the passes will come to her if she comes to UConn next year, she’ll get all these open shots.’ I’m just shaking my head, my parents are laughing. But it was a Paige moment.”
December 19, 2019: Bueckers tweets “#GetAzziToUconn” in hopes of getting the basketball player to commit to her college.
X content
2017: The pair forge a close friendship after meeting at tryouts for a USA Basketball team in 2017, though Fudd says she didn’t think Bueckers was much competition at first. “We both made the team, I realized that she’s actually one of the best players I’ve ever seen play,” Fudd later told The UConn Blog. “She’s deceiving…. I was like, ‘Okay, I guess I was wrong about her.’”
This article may be updated.
