Retired NBA star Metta World Peace, whose birth name is Ronald William Artest Jr., and his wife, Maya Sandiford Artest are documenting their pregnancy journey witht the world.
In an exclusive for Essence Magazine, photographer, Ali Marie Parker, captured the true beauty of the budding, soon-to-be, family-of-three.
The former basketball star shared a carousel of images from their beautiful maternity shoot with Essence Magazine, on Instagram. He cleverly used a play-on-words to caption the carousel writing, “Thanks for capturing our @essence,” followed by a single blue heart, of course, giving a nod to the fact that the couple is expecting a baby boy.
This is the first child for Metta and his wife Maya, although he is father to two sons, Ron III and Jeron, as well as two daughters Sadie and Diamond, from his first marriage and a past relationship. Maya told the outlet that the couple “took their time” with their relationship and the expansion of their own family.
“We really took our time with our relationship. We got married after six years of being together, and four years later we are now expecting.”
The former model added, “To be completely honest, our pregnancy wasn’t really planned. An OB said I likely wasn’t ovulating, so it was a definite surprise. Now, we couldn’t be more excited!”
Artest added, “I was ready for kids with Maya since day 1. She’s going to be a great mom.”
In a previous interview with People Magazine, Maya got candid about her rollercoaster of emotions and feelings.
“The first trimester was an absolute nightmare. I was sick every day. I feel like women don’t talk enough about how brutal the first trimester can be, maybe in fear of appearing ungrateful. But I’m here to say that all women, the first tri can be absolute s— and I think it’s okay to say that and talk about it.”
Yet, Maya hasn’t had to go through this journey alone as her husband has been her assistant through it all telling Essence that he has “…been her assistant. Making teas, her breakfast, cutting up her watermelon – she eats like a watermelon a day.”
Although we don’t know an exact date that the couple’s son will make his world debut, we have a feeling that it will be sometime soon as they are taking birth prep courses and Maya admits to Essence that she is “listening to a ton of audiobooks” and counting on the advice of her girlfriends to fill in the gaps.
We are definitely waiting with baited breath to see first pics of the new addition.
Photo: Ali Marie Parker
