Brazillian model Anne de Paula has been in a relationship with Cameroonian-French basketball player Joel Hans Embiid since 2018.
Anne de Paula emerged after winning the Sports Illustrated magazine’s Swimsuit Model Search competition in 2017. Soon enough, she could grace the pages again in February 2018, which is an impressive feat considering that she was still a rookie.
After this, de Paula established herself as a successful bikini model and gained much popularity on social media. She has amassed over 234K followers on Instagram, with each of her pictures gaining thousands of likes.
Anne de Paula is affiliated with Wilhelmina Models, a modeling agency and one of the most popular and oldest as it was established on 1967. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Joel Embiid, has also helped her popularity soar.
Who Is Anne de Paula?
Anne de Paula grew up in one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas and was born on March 31, 1995.
In the favelas, soccer is an integral part of everyday life, and de Paula’s young life was no different. Her father encouraged her to become a soccer player, and she began playing soccer at eight.
Because of her penchant for playing soccer, she spent much of her childhood playing the sport with boys and grew up a bit of a tomboy. Her talents would not go unnoticed as de Paula went on to play soccer for her school team and even represented her city.
However, Anne de Paula was not meant to become a soccer player, as she had to give up the sport when she started modeling at 13. Modeling was something her mother encouraged her to try, and it was also her mother who brought the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue to her attention, which she would grace some years later.
Before dating Joel Embiid, Anne de Paula was in a high-profile relationship with Danny O’Donoghue, the lead singer and songwriter of the Irish band, The Script. They were very public with their relationship, which lasted three years.
Are Anne de Paula and Joel Embiid Married?
Anne de Paula and Joel Embiid are not married; however, they had their first child together, a son, in September 2020.
Anne de Paula started dating Embiid soon after her split with Danny O’Donoghue. According to sources, the two met in 2018 at a New York City dinner through mutual friends.
According to de Paula, she didn’t even know Embiid was a basketball player when they met for dinner, but it was the start of what seemed destined to become a beautiful friendship. She said they bonded over the things they have in common, like their mutual love of soccer, speaking French and their hopes of one day starting a family.
Following their first date, the pair said they FaceTimed every day for a while and got to know each other. Although keeping their relationship secret at first, they were first seen together in China when Embiid took part in the NBA China Games in October 2018, where he represented his team, the Philadelphia 76ers.
Embiid revealed their relationship by posting a picture of them together atop the Great Wall of China. Following this reveal, the two started attending public events together and featuring each other on their Instagram pages.
Joel Embiid and Anne de Paula’s Age Difference
The couple is not married, but they had a son together on September 17, 2020.
The pair named their son Arthur Embiid in the memory of his younger brother, who passed away in a car crash in Cameroon on October 16, 2014. Embiid and de Paula welcomed their son on social media with heartwarming posts heralding his arrival.
Following the birth of their son, fans began to ask if they would get married anytime soon, but the couple has yet to comment on the matter. By all accounts, the couple is happy with where they are in life, which matters.
With only a year between them, the couple seems to have started their mutual dream of making a family together.