After news broke of Ashlyn Harris and Sophia Bush being an actual item mere moments after we’d all been asked to collectively process news of Ashlyn and Ali Krieger’s divorce, many wondered “How does Ali Krieger feel about having to see Ashlyn with someone new so soon after their breakup? Did Ashlyn’s relationship with Sophia Bush overlap with her marriage? Did it play a role in their breakup?” More specifically… did Ashlyn Harris cheat on Ali Krieger?
Well, pals, the potential answers to some of those questions were answered today in an oblique and not entirely clear but nevertheless possibly definitive manner when Ali Krieger posted a photograph of herself excelling at the game of soccer, as she so often does, with the caption “Preparing for playoffs while in my Beyoncé lemonade era.” This is interpreted as a nod to the “Lemonade” album in which Beyoncé commented on Jay-Z’s infidelity through the power of song.
I consulted with Autostraddle’s resident Beyoncé Scholar, Editor-in-Chief Carmen Phillips, for how she would define a “Beyoncé lemonade era.” I submit to you below the empirical definition going forward, from Carmen herself:
“What is most interesting about one’s “Lemonade era” is that it instantly invokes a singular image: Beyoncé, in a bright yellow dress, smiling while swinging a baseball bat and gleefully smashing a car window. While she never says that this car belongs to Jay-Z, it’s impossible to separate from a line that comes later in the music film — one of “Becky with the good hair.”
When you are in your Lemonade era, you were jilted, disrespected, and most concretely? You were cheated on.”
There you have it.
Which Soccer Players Are Implicitly On Team Ali?
The post earned affirmative responses such as “Let’s go queen!” and “Now Alexandra 💀” and “Slaying!” and “the world is yours” from soccer players including Midge Purce, Crystal Dunn, Sophia Smith, Steph Catley, Jess Fishlock, Maitane Lopez Millan, Kaylyn Kyle Heath, Maddie Pogarch, Christen Westphal, Chioma Ubogagu, Bella Bixby, Ellie Jean, Bianca Serra and Cheyna Matthews. Most notably, the legendary forward Alex Morgan popped in:
I can’t speak for Alex but I certainly can speak for myself, with respect to comments that did not disappoint me personally. Let’s start with Alex’s gay brother Kyle, who has been pretty vocal for some time now about this divorce!
Ali’s team (which is also Ashlyn’s former team), Gotham FC, also weighed in:
As did some funny fans:
Was There Infidelity In Ali and Ashlyn’s Marriage?
According to problematic bastion of journalistic integrity The Daily Mail, Ashlyn told Ali the marriage was over days after returning from Cannes, where she was “flirty” with Sophia Bush.
This claim was echoed by a TMZ podcast that I had to stop listening to as soon as they started talking about how it was probably easier for Bush’s husband to handle being left for a woman than for a man.
There is no way to know for certain what happened, but that will not stop the community from continuing to try.
Also It’s Ashlyn Harris’s Birthday
Meanwhile, it is apparently Ashlyn Harris’ birthday, and the USWNT social media manager picked a really specific photograph to mark the occasion:
“Happy birthday to 2x World Cup champ @ashlynharris24,” they posted. And um:
!
Don’t care about women’s soccer but yooo her gay brother called her ex a hoe!!!!! That’s sibling comrade shit
We love to see it!
Really glad AS is continuing its sports coverage. This is bigger than the superbowl.
Major matchups happening around here, big moves, strong throws, epic kicks and dives !!
Thanks y’all. When I saw Sue Bird’s “Ali Krieger Fan Club” t shirt courtside at the WNBA game, I was wondering what happened for her to so publicly take a side! Now I have an inkling.
That’s a little tricky, because those shirts were made for Ali’s last home game, so I’m not sure how much of a side Sue & Megan are publicly taking. Ashlyn (And Sophia actually) came to Megan’s last regular season home game in Seattle, and they hung out afterwards, and Sue went to a New York Liberty game with Ashlyn about a month ago as well. So while they definitely support Ali, it’s hard to tell if they are taking a side in this. That said, neither Sue nor Megan wished Ashlyn a happy birthday publicly, which is definitely unlike them, so, who knows.
I think the shirts had a double meaning, honestly, and with this news I don’t blame them
Or maybe she was upset – since they aren’t divorced yet – the ex moved on so quickly (especially with a fan favorite) so needed a little PR boost. She also knew today was her birthday so perfect timing. Who knows. I’m sure everyone’s better off.
Yeah, it would be tough to see your ex with someone else so publicly, so soon, even if there wasn’t any cheating
What season of the L word are we on?? This is like old school February sweeps level drama.
big season 4 energy
I get that cheating is no fun and all. But it’s just sad to see. People are wishing her death over that. There real life children in the middle. And everyone is milking a very personal story for PR and like. I think both of their behavior is not right right now.
We still don’t know the details of what happened but I’m hoping for Ali’s sake that she’s posting this out of hurt feelings and not because this was a drawn-out horrible thing. Some of Ashlyn’s choices in the wake of this seem to have been either intentionally or thoughtlessly upsetting, and either option is pretty bad.
An aside: I’m curious as to why this situation is met with Ashlyn and Sophia receiving nasty messages while Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are celebrated pretty unquestioned despite it sounding like there was overlap between Sue Bird and Rapinoe’s ex before her? I’m genuinely really struggling to understand the difference in reaction, does anyone have any insight?
I think many fans, especially gay ones, were looking up to Ali and Ashlyn as role models, seemingly having all (at least from the outside looking in), successful careers, loving partners, and later on two beautiful kids. And they let everyone take part in their lives via social media. So I think people were invested in them as a couple and happy queer family and had a different emotional connection to them than to Megan and whoever her fiancee was back then.
I think it would be different if it was all resolved quietly and behind closed doors and there was a joint statement about their break up.
So far, there is one single fact that we know for sure about this story which is that Ashlyn filed for divorce in the end of September. This was made public mere days before Ali’s possible retirement game in October and so people were mad or worried that this would overshadow her career celebrations. They could have just waited until after the season is over and let have Ali her deserved moment. It is rumored that Ashlyn’s camp leaked the news so that she wouldn’t have to play happy family at Ali’s last game. And even if they didn’t leak it on purpose, it’s quite naive to think that it wouldn’t come out regardless since it’s public record. So people are wondering why Ashlyn made the conscious decision to file for divorce so close to Ali’s career ending. After 13 years together one would think that it would be possible to wait another 2 or 3 months, no?
After the divorce news there was an article in People magazine with an insider source claiming that Ashlyn and Sophia Bush recently (like weeks recently) went on their first date. Fans are thinking that this was another leak to do damage control since rumor has it that they have been at least in some capacity romantically involved since June.
Ali has been keeping quiet during all of this only posting about soccer and the kids and this is actually the first post where you can read something into. There is lots of other rumors which don’t favor Ashlyn and her behavior, so the whole thing is quite messy. In the end, we don’t know what is true. But seeing so many players publicly making such comments and standing behind Ali, it makes me think that Ashlyn must have fucked up really badly.
This is a fair statement. I think part of the reason is that people now forget that Megan was engaged to someone else when she met Sue, or they’ve blocked it out of their minds. Also, things with Megan, Sue and Sera did not play out this publicly or this nastily. In fact, Sue and Megan didn’t even post together until Sue confirmed their relationship which was almost a year into it…They clearly had better PR people than Ashlyn does, because I believe they didn’t confirm anything because they knew they’d be ripped to shreds if they did so close to the end of Megan’s relationship. But yeah, I guess because our community just loves Sue and Megan, and looks up to them, they are just willing to look passed how they got started. My wife and I travel to Seattle regularly, and we have friend out there that knows Megan’s old fiance, Sera, who firmly believes there was overlap between the two relationships, so, there’s that. But, you raise a really good point.
Oh then my perspective is completely different than yours. I didn’t even know the name of Pinoe’s former fiancee until you just mentioned it. Neither did I know who Sue was but when I learned of them together I just every lesbian power couple is a win in my book. Though I get where you are coming from.
I do think it’s a bit different as well because Pinoe became famous as an individual (per my understanding) while Ali and Ashlyn were together long before they came into the spotlight. So while Pinoe’s fans may like her for her, many of Ali and Ashlyn’s fans gravitated towards them exactly because they were a couple and now they are very heartbroken and need someone to blame.
This is definitely true….The #Krashlyn audience is HUGE and so many fans just loved them together, especially when there was so much speculation initially over whether or not they were together. And yes, we definitely need someone to blame, and at least publicly, Ashlyn looks way worse in all of this. Sophia also looks bad (As an aside, my goodness, she seems lovely, but what kind of partner is she? She’s been married twice, neither of which made it two years), but you know us queers want to take sides, and it looks like Ali was the victim.
2023 is like… idk… evil 20gayteen.
Megan’s fiancée was extremely talented queer songwriter Sera Cahoone. People should absolutely look her up and check out her music.
That said, Megan def left Sera for Sue BUT her memoir emphatically says that nothing happened between them until after the breakup. She and Sue are VERY vocal that nothing happened earlier.
I think this is where I’m struggling – so far Harris and Bush seem to have suggested there was no cheating, only suspicious timing, which seems to be the case for Rapinoe and Bird too. The former partner seems to think otherwise in both cases. Why are people willing to believe one couple but not the other? It feels like when we strip away the media presence and parasocial love of “Krashlyn” as a couple the situations they fundamentally aren’t dissimilar, but the main difference is that Harris doesn’t seem super likeable (which I agree with, the insta bio thing was grim af). The whole thing makes me really feel for Sera.
I do think it makes a difference that Ashlyn and Ali were married and had kids.
I don’t think it’s about believing them, people just don’t care. They support Megan and Sue regardless. At least this is the impression I got.
I also agree with Harris being not super likeable and that might also be the reason why in this case people are not willing to look past the cheating, they just like Ali better.
On the We Can Do Hard Things podcast, Megan explicitly says there was emotional overlap between the two relationships. And if I remember correctly, she mentions this when asked about how her and Sue got together. So I think it all depends on how one defines cheating. We don’t know the inner workings of any of these relationships obviously.
Well, Megan’s not gonna say anywhere publicly, “I cheated” nor is Sue gonna say “I came in between and broke up a potential marriage.” Just like, if Ashlyn or Sophia ever speaks on this, they won’t say that either, even though one can connect the dots. So, we don’t know, but looking at timelines, you can come to your own conclusions…Also, in Sue & Megan’s case, there are quotes out there, mostly from Diana Taurasi that are interesting and definitely make you think. And as I said in that other comment, Olympics ended late August, Megan sees Sue in Chicago early September, and then they’re together later in September…so, who knows.
I mean, Megan isn’t going to write in a book that millions of people – including kids who look up to her are going to read, “I cheated on my fiance…” Come on now. Now, no one knows except the three of them and those close to them what actually happened, so all theories are purely speculation. As I mentioned before, wife & I have a friend in Seattle who knows Sera, and she THINKS Megan and Sue hooked up at the Oympics, but once again, that’s not based on fact, just feeling. But from hearing them & Diana Taurasi (Sue’s best friend, who was @ the party @ the Olympics where Sue & Megan really got close) talk about this, Sue was drawn to Megan pretty instantly & seemingly wanted her right away, even though she knew she was engaged. That’s why Diana kept saying to her “get away from that table” when Sue & Meg were getting close. Diana was also quoted as saying she knew when Sue was “on the prowl” and she was that night…So once again, who the hell knows. The Olympics ended in late August 2016 (when she and Sera were still together), Megan went to see Sue play in Chicago early September, and they were like fully together later that month…a bit of an interesting timeline, so take from it whatever you want.
Thank you for your continued coverage of this important matter!!! 2024 Pulitzer in Journalism material right here.