Cincinnati Bengals guard Dalton Risner’s wife, Whitney Risner, is clearing the air about whether the NFL star invested in her jewelry brand.
“I launched Waawees and just, like, bootstrapped it. I saved up all my money from college and put that into my initial investment,” Whitney, 27, said on the Sunday, October 26, episode of the “Sunday Sports Club” podcast. “Then, I’ve just continued to reinvest in my combat, and I think that’s been the coolest part about it.”
Whitney launched Waawees in 2020, leading to several fans wondering whether Dalton, 30, backed the brand with his NFL salary.
“The comments that really cut the deepest are the ones that are, like, ‘Oh, your husband funded this business,’” she said, addressing the speculation head on. “You know, he didn’t. He has been my biggest support and, honestly, [I] wouldn’t be able to do it without him, but if we’re talking logistics and money? I did start this brand on my own — and I’m proud of that.”
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According to Whitney, she handles most of the design process for Waawees and “a lot of the gritty and the grind” behind the scenes.
“I moved, like, 5,000 pieces to Ohio,” Whitney told podcast host Allison Kuch of relocating to Cincinnati when Dalton signed with the Bengals earlier this year. “The fact that I can get these into, like, four boxes? I’m like, ‘Throw them in! Let’s go bring them to Ohio.’”
Whitney further gushed that each Waawees piece “is like [her] baby.”
“It’s so fun to design and think about, ‘OK, what would I wear this with?’” Whitney said of her jewelry-making process. “It’s even fun to style and when I post a piece [on social media], it’s been so fun to see girls go get that exact stack, like, ‘Oh my gosh, they love what I’m wearing [and] what I designed.’ I feel honored that they want to wear that.”
Dalton and Whitney have been married since 2022 after initially meeting during college.
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“I played basketball for Hays State [and] he played football at Kansas State, so our schools played each other,” Whitney recalled on Sunday. “We knew of each other, and he slid into the DMs.”
While Whitney never responded to Dalton’s social media message, they both ended up at a mutual friend’s party in Missouri the next year.
“He is so easy to love and just has such an energy that attracts people,” Whitney recalled of meeting her now-husband. “First night we met, we hit it off, [and] I am definitely playing hard to get because I’m, like, ‘There’s this guy [who’s] just been drafted to Denver and thinks he’s hot stuff.’”
Whitney soon let her guard down after she saw how “sweet” Dalton was despite his soon-to-be rookie year with the Denver Broncos.
“We end up doing long distance his rookie year,” she said, recalling how she finished up her last year of college as he joined the NFL. “He’s such a good human [and] wears his heart on his sleeve. I knew him for, like, two weeks and he got me this NFL jersey that said, ‘Risner’s Girl’ on the back.”
