*Cherelle Griner told CBS MORNINGS co-host Gayle King that she has had two phone calls with her wife, Brittney Griner, since the WNBA star was arrested in Russia for drug possession in February.
The first time, she was delighted, but the second phone call was different.
“You could hear that she was not okay. If you think about just a person’s suffering and when they have suffered to a max…she was at the max that day,” Cherelle said.
Brittney Griner’s appeal of her nine-year prison sentence in Russia has been scheduled for October 25. CBS MORNINGS co-host Gayle King sat down exclusively with her wife, Cherelle Griner, for her first interview since Griner’s sentencing in August.
Cherelle Griner is in the fight of her life to bring home her wife, Brittney Griner, who’s been sentenced to nine years in prison.
She fears the worst: “I don’t know if she has anything left in her tank to continue to wake up every day and be in a place where she has no one.” pic.twitter.com/WR4fm5RRUt
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 6, 2022
Excerpts:
- On the two phone calls she had with Brittney: “So the first conversation– it was just so delightful just to hear her voice. At that point I was like, ‘You know what? I think she’s okay. We can– we can– we can survive this.’ The second phone call I just– the minute I hung up I think I cried for about two, three days straight. I did not get out of my bed. It was the most disturbing phone call I’d ever experienced. And I’ve known B.G. 11 years. And so I’m like, ‘That was the most disturbing conversation.’”
- “On its face it just seems like my wife is a hostage, to know that our government and a foreign government is sitting down and negotiating for her release? She’s a hostage.”
- On what she believes it will take to bring Brittney home: “I feel like at this point, it’s gonna take Putin to have that same mindset and say, ‘You know what? Brittney Griner, who came to my country for seven, eight years and helped my country be recognized through sport, pay taxes in my country, help my country, I’m gonna sit at a table and I’m going to be clear about what I need in return for her release so that we can actually get a meeting of the minds between these two governments.’”
- “I do believe a crime should warrant a punishment, but it must be balanced. It must be balanced. And that, it tears me to pieces to see that this is not balanced for my wife right now. And so I want people to see that, to see the fact that, like, has she suffered enough. Like, B.G. has truly suffered beyond her crime already.”
- “B.G.’s at her absolute weakest moment in life right now. She’s very afraid about being left and forgotten in Russia, or just completely used to the point of her detriment. Because she’s, like, you know, saying things to me like, ‘My life just don’t even matter no more.”
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source: CBS News Communications
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