Former Chicago Bulls guard Jaden Ivey was back streaming live to his Instagram followers on Monday, April 6, but his wife wanted nothing to do with it.
The embattled NBA star was speaking to fans when he mentioned his wife, Caitlyn Newton, who was in the background. She could be heard saying “please stop” before Ivey, 24, pointed the camera at her.
“She loves me. She loves God. She obeys God,” he said.
The Bulls waived Ivey on March 30, citing “conduct detrimental to the team” after he made anti-LGBTQ+ comments on an Instagram live stream. In the immediate aftermath, Ivey said that Newton had stopped speaking to him.
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“That’s why my wife in here, and she not even texting me,” he said on a live stream the next day. “Those who are around me, those who are my family members betraying [me] because of what I spoke. The truth. Betraying me. Saying that I’m losing my mind. Saying that I’m crazy. … Those are my own household. All because of the Gospel. All because I said the truth.”
Newton later refuted her husband’s claim, writing via Instagram that, “We were communicating all morning of that day. People say things for attention, do not be deceived.”
She added, “If you know me you know I have never once abandoned that man through all the trials and I still haven’t now. There is obviously a lot more going on, so leave your conspiracies and guesses to yourselves.”
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Ivey and Newton met when they were student-athletes at Purdue University, where she was on volleyball team. They married in 2022 and the pair shares son Noah, 3, daughter Shiloh, 2, and son Isaiah, 13 months.
Ivey first sparked controversy when he railed against the NBA’s decision to celebrate Pride Month on his stream.
“The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right?” he said. “They proclaim Pride Month. And the NBA, they proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month, to celebrate unrighteousness.’ They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it in the streets. Unrighteousness.”
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He was also combative with followers in the comments section, writing to one fan, “Catholicism is a false religion. And is not the true Doctrine of Christ. [It] does not lead to salvation in Jesus Christ.”
Bulls head coach, Billy Donovan, addressed the controversy that evening before a game against the San Antonio Spurs.
“I think there’s a certain level of standards and expectations that are here,” he said. “I mean, we have people from all different walks of life working in the building and players from all different walks of life, right? So, the first thing is, everybody comes with their own personal experiences. But one is, we’ve got to all be professional. I think there’s got to be a high level of respect for one another, and we got to help each other and then be accountable to those standards.”
