LeBron James, Steph Curry, Joel Embiid

Hard to believe two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry failed to connect on his initial move with now-wife Ayesha Curry. But when the then-Davidson College standout went in for a kiss during a hang with his former youth group pal, she ducked.

Thankfully, “We had a do-over!” she told told E! News’ Jason Kennedy in October 2017. And a few years after that first kiss in his parents’ driveway back in their hometown of Charlotte, he proposed in that very spot. “Yeah,” he told Parents, “it was like The Notebook.”

When they discovered months after their 2011 vows they were expecting their first child—future press conference scene-stealer Riley—Ayesha worried she’d never fully find her professional footing.

But more than a decade, three more kids—daughter Ryan joined the squad in 2015, followed by brothers Canon and Caius in 2018 and 2024—and an entire lifestyle empire later, she’s done just fine, her list of titles including cookbook author, Food Network personality, model and philanthropist.

Just don’t saddle her with the term “basketball wife.” As she shrewdly pointed out to ABC News, “I mean, I don’t think my husband would call himself ‘chef’s wife.'”