Brittney Griner’s wife is calling out the United States government for promising her a wedding anniversary call that failed to take place.
Saturday marked Brittney and Cherelle Griner’s fourth wedding anniversary but instead of speaking to her wife, who remains in custody in Russia, Cherelle says the WNBA star called 11 times but the U.S. government failed to connect the call, The New York Post reported.
After placing nearly a dozen calls, Griner’s calls failed to go through due to no one from the U.S. embassy in Moscow being staffed to patch it through.
“I was distraught. I was hurt. I was done, fed up,” Cherelle told The Associated Press on Monday.
“I’m pretty sure I texted BG’s agent and was like: ‘I don’t want to talk to anybody. It’s going to take me a minute to get my emotions together, and just tell everybody I’m unavailable right now.’ Because it just knocked me out. I wasn’t well. I’m still not well.”
Cherelle says she is “very pissed” the call didn’t go through since it had been planned for two weeks.
“I find it unacceptable and I have zero trust in our government right now,” Cherelle said.
“If I can’t trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife’s behalf to come home? Because that’s a much bigger ask than to catch a Saturday call.”
Cherelle has been hoping to meet or speak with President Joe Biden as she continues to await news on Brittney being released from Russian custody.
“At this point, it’s starting to feel like a no,” she said.
In addition to not speaking to her wife on their wedding anniversary, the call would’ve been Cherelle’s first time hearing from Brittney amid her detainment.
“This was such a big moment because this would have been the first time where I truly could tell if she’s OK,” she said. “This would have been the first time for me to actually just hear her in real time and to truly know if she’s OK or to know if she’s seconds away from not being in existence anymore.”
The State Department has since released a statement expressing its disappointment in the botched anniversary call.
“We deeply regret that Brittney Griner was unable to speak with her wife because of a logistical error.”
The department has admitted that the seven-time WNBA All-Star is being wrongfully detained in Russia after getting arrested for possessing cannabis vape cartridges in February.