‘It’s about choosing what’s best for you. You think I really want to lose money?’ Kyrie Irving had shared once while defending his anti-vaxxer stance.

Amid the NBA ban on Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving for his disobedience of the Covid-19 vaccination mandate, a large crowd of anti-vaxxers protested outside the Barclays Stadium on Sunday, October 24, 2021. Fans of Kyrie Irving flocked the venue ahead of a Brooklyn Nets match and raised the demand “Let Kyrie Play”. A smaller group of fans even stormed through the metal barriers at the entrance and created quite the chaos, eventually prompting security guards to lock the building.

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old basketball player continues to stand his ground of not getting the jab, even after he is likely to lose about half of his $35 million salary. Irving further insisted that he does not regret his decision to not get vaccinated. “So what? It’s not about the money. It’s not always about the money. It’s about choosing what’s best for you. You think I really want to lose money?” he had previously said. The benched player is believed to be spending more of his time with his infant child and fiancee Marlene Wilkerson at present.

Kyrie Irving and Marlene Wilkerson have been together since 2018, and reportedly got engaged in 2019. They had probably met during school, but it is unclear when they first started dating. Wilkerson was previously seeing Irving’s fellow basketball teammate Dexter Strickland in school. She was first spotted in public with Irving in 2018 at Kyrie’s Invitational.

In June 2021, the couple welcomed their first child together. Irving also has an elder daughter Azurie Elizabeth, 6, from a previous relationship.

The gorgeous Marlene Wilkerson aka Golden is a 23-year-old Instagram model and influencer. She has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram while her YouTube page is subscribed by more than 730,000 people. She regularly shares content on fashion, fitness, and beauty. Throughout the early months of 2021, Wilkerson documented her pregnancy journey and later compiled it together on a video titled ‘Our Pregnancy Journey’. She gave birth in June via water birth, the traditional and natural birth procedure being opted by many in recent years.

“A dedication to indigenous women to reclaim their bodies and heal our lineage through [sacred] natural birth. May you find your way to that inner knowing. May we educate, empower, and assist each other through the sacred journey of becoming and being a Mother,” Wilkerson shared this message in her video.

Though Wilkerson elaborately shared her pregnancy updates and maternity photoshoots with Irving, the couple is otherwise private about their relationship. The duo loves to refer to themselves together as “KALM”, as Irving once captioned a couple photo as “KALM energy. KALM presence. KALM in love. My Ankh.”

It is unclear whether Marlene Wilkerson is also an anti-vaxxer and shares the same beliefs as Kyrie Irving when it comes to the Covid-19 jab. She is yet to make any public statement or share her opinion around the issue.