Who is Kelsey Plum’s ex-husband, Darren Waller? The newly retired NFL star beat addiction and made a cringey music video about his ex-wife – but why did he risk incurring the wrath of Swifties?

Jun 29 , 2024

Kelsey Plum says she was left “devastated” after her split from NFL player Darren Waller earlier this year. Photo: Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Darren Waller announced his retirement from professional American football earlier this month after eight seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders (formerly the Oakland Raiders), the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants.

Following a stellar college career as Georgia Tech’s leading wide receiver, per Business Insider, Waller became one of the NFL’s highest-paid tight ends. The last three-year contract he signed with the Raiders was worth US$51 million.

Besides his own sporting career, Waller is now just as famous for being WNBA star Kelsey Plum’s ex-husband. The pair tied the knot in March 2023 and filed for divorce in April, after just one year of marriage.

WNBA player Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces and tight end Darren Waller, formerly of the Las Vegas Raiders, were married for just one year. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

Plum described herself as “devastated” by the break-up. Less than a month later, she set the internet alight twice in two days by appearing in one of Kim Kardashian’s Skims campaigns, then showing up to the Las Vegas Aces’ season opener in an Alexander Wang micro vest with nothing underneath.

As one commentator quipped at the time of their break up: “Darren Waller fumbling Kelsey Plum is one of the biggest fumbles in American history.”

So who is Darren Waller, and how does he feel about his very high-profile divorce? Here’s what you need to know.

Darren Waller overcame addiction to become an NFL star

Darren Waller played for the Las Vegas Raiders before retiring this year. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

According to US media, Waller began using oxycodone at the age of 15, and started drinking at 16. He was high-functioning for a while, but it wasn’t to last. As reported in The Baltimore Sun, Waller was suspended twice while at Georgia Tech – though the drug he was caught using was marijuana.

In 2016 he received a four-game ban from the NFL for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. He failed drug tests again the following year and, per the NFL website, was suspended for a minimum of one year without pay. By this point, according to US media, he admitted he was doing “a lot” of cocaine.

After going to rehab and completing his suspension, Waller was reinstated by the NFL in 2018. The following year his addiction and recovery journey went viral, per ESPN, when he appeared in the sports docu series Hard Knocks.

After getting clean, Waller wasn’t even sure he wanted to return to the NFL … but then the Raiders came knocking. “So thrilled for him getting it together and being an honest, upfront guy and talking about it,” then coach Jon Gruden was quoted as saying. “Giving other young people the same enthusiasm to beat it, the same confidence that they can beat whatever addiction they might have.”

He enjoys making music … but his Kelsey Plum-inspired video fell flat

An actress, thought to represent Kelsey Plum, in the music video for Darren Waller’s song “Who Knew (Her Perspective)”. Photo: YouTube.

A musician in his spare time, Waller’s SoundCloud is mostly populated with hip-hop tracks. The rapper went in another direction entirely with “Who Knew (Her Perspective)”, a song about the end of his relationship with his ex-wife.

In the music video, Waller sings imploringly to a heavily made-up actress in false eyelashes – who resembles Plum only in so far as she has long, dark-brown hair.

The video climaxes with “Plum” hugging Waller on the beach, before stabbing him in the back. Bleeding, he falls to the sand, staring after his erstwhile love’s retreating form before half-closing his eyes as though succumbing to death – only to scrunch up his face reflexively as the incoming tide hits.

The release was widely panned, with Yahoo Sports reporting that reactions “mostly alternated between derision, confusion and outright laughter”.

The track includes such lyrics as: “How long I gotta climb up this hill? / I’m tired and I wanna be still / Imagine if we fell out of tune / ‘cause f***, who knew that love could kill?”

A fun fact for the music trivia nerds: Waller is the great-grandson of the legendary jazz pianist, singer and composer Fats Waller. According to the website Discography of American Historical Recordings, the elder Waller’s “innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano”. His best-known compositions, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose”, were posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Darren Waller risked making an enemy of the Swiftie brigade

Darren Waller hit back against the idea that singer Taylor Swift should be gifted a Super Bowl ring if her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce, won. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

In February, US media reported that Taylor Swift made a beeline for her private plane after wrapping the Tokyo leg of her Eras Tour. The aim? To be in Vegas to see boyfriend Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs play the Super Bowl.

Less than a week later, Waller was in hot water for a comment he made about the Chiefs’ most famous super fan. After the idea was mooted to gift Tay Tay a Super Bowl ring if the Chiefs won the championship, Waller expressed his dissent. Speaking to TMZ Sports, he said that while he thought it OK for Swift to be given a replica, actual Super Bowl rings should be reserved for “people in meetings, on the field – like, really in the trenches, you know?”

We haven’t heard much about his comment since then, so can only assume the Swiftie brigade had bigger fish to fry.

Fame and celebrity

Waller was addicted to oxycodone, alcohol and cocaine, and was suspended both during his college career and from the NFL for failing drug tests – he completed rehab during a year-long suspension
The former tight end recorded a song about the break-up of his relationship with WNBA star Kelsey Plum – but it was the music video that really left the internet scratching its collective head