Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya is a South African icon and hero. She has had her fair share of ups and downs throughout her career, but is lucky to have the love of wife Violet Raseboya to keep her going. Here’s how this golden couple met and fell in love.
Semenya and Raseboya, a fellow sprinter, met in 2007 at a restroom when Caster was only 15 years old. They didn’t have the greatest introduction.
“We met in a restroom in 2007. She was a runner and was being escorted by doping officials. She thought I was a boy and said: ‘What is a boy doing in here?” Semenya told BET. In response, she told Raseboya, “I’m not a boy. You think I’m lost? You think I can just walk in here?”
The pair were friends for a while, until Caster confessed her feelings to Violet.
“We were in denial. She had a past. She had a boyfriend. [Violet] was trying to deny being in love with a woman.”
The couple eventually got together despite these difficulties, but were on and off for years until deciding in 2015 that they wanted to take things seriously. They had a traditional wedding ceremony in 2015 and a lavish white wedding in December 2017 in Pretoria.
Fast forward thirteen years, and the pair are as close as ever.
“She is someone I can rely on. Through thick and thin,” Semenya said of her wife.
Their long-distance relationship makes things tough as times, but it’s all worth it.
“She means everything to me. She means the world and she’s the best thing that ever happened to me, because she supports me in everything I do. She’s the one who encouraged me to go to school, to train hard, to look up to my future,” she told Times Live. “It is life, man. There are some things you cannot explain. But obviously if you’ve had deep feelings for someone you’ll understand what I’m saying.”
The pair recently announced that Violent is pregnant with their first child. Congratulations to the expecting parents!
Feature image: Instagram / Ledile_violet_s
