NEED TO KNOW

• Tennis pro Ben Shelton and soccer star Trinity Rodman teased their relationship in early March 2025

• The couple then hard-launched their romance on Instagram a few days later

• Now, Shelton and Rodman are supporting each other’s athletic careers

Trinity Rodman and Ben Shelton are an athletic power couple.

Less than two weeks after sparking dating rumors on TikTok in early March 2025, the pair confirmed their relationship with a hard launch on Instagram. Fans and friends, including tennis pros Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe, excitedly commented on the post.

Shelton and Rodman are choosing to keep aspects of their relationship private, including how they met, but they have continued to gush over each other on social media, and Rodman made her players’ box debut at Shelton’s BMW Open semifinals match in Munich in April 2025.

The soccer pro opened up to ESPN’s SportsCenter about making her and Shelton’s relationship public. When asked about the response to their Instagram post, Rodman said with a laugh, “I mean, I’m just another person in a relationship and people know about it.”

Rodman previously dated NFL player Trinity Benson — the pair confirmed their romance on Instagram in May 2024.

Here’s everything to know about Trinity Rodman and Ben Shelton’s relationship.

Both Shelton and Rodman are professional athletes

Rodman, who is the daughter of former NBA star Dennis Rodman and his third wife, Michelle Moyer, is a soccer star and Olympic champion. In 2021, she was drafted second overall in the National Women’s Soccer League at age 18. She plays professionally for the Washington Spirit and has already shattered records and made history several times.

Rodman participated in her first FIFA Women’s World Cup alongside the U.S. Women’s National Team in July 2023. One year later, she made her Olympic debut in Paris. She scored the first goal for the USWNT, and the team went on to win gold.

In April 2025, the National Women’s Soccer League announced that Rodman was sidelined indefinitely due to back issues, according to the Associated Press.

Shelton is a professional tennis player. He turned pro in 2022 and in 2023 became the youngest U.S. Open American men’s semi-finalist, after Michael Chang in 1992. As of July 2025, he was ranked 10th in the world.

The Atlanta native is the son of former professional tennis players Bryan and Lisa Shelton.

They fueled dating rumors on TikTok

Shelton and Rodman appeared to be shooting their shots in a flirty TikTok back-and-forth in March 2025.

First, Shelton posted a TikTok video of himself listening to GloRilla and Jorjiana’s song, “ILBB2,” which includes the lyrics, “They say shooters shoot / Duke Dennis what’s up with you.” Text appeared over Shelton’s clip, which read, “T****** wsp with u.”

The next day, Rodman posted a video seemingly in response. In hers, the Olympian mouthed the same lyrics, but the text over her clip read, “_ _ _ wassup w you.” In her TikTok, Rodman can be seen smiling widely and pointing at the message.

Fans had a field day in the comments, pointing out that the “blanks” in the posts matched the first letters of each of their names.

They hard launched in March 2025

Just 10 days after the TikTok posts, Rodman and Shelton hard launched their relationship.

The duo went Instagram official on March 17, when Shelton posted a carousel that included a selfie of himself and Rodman in an elevator. In the photo, the soccer player has her arm around her beau’s neck as she kisses him on the cheek.

“I been focused, but I’m steady climbin’, I’m nowhere near my peak,” Shelton captioned the post.

Rodman responded in the comment section by referencing their previous TikTok trend post: “Shooters shoot I guess 🤭👀.”

Shelton’s fellow American tennis pros were quick to react, too. Gauff and Sloane Stephens both responded with excited takes on the “hard launch,” while Tiafoe commented, “We gram now 👀👀👀👀.”

The relationship reveal has already become fodder for opinion pieces, like musing in The Athletic on “how high-profile relationships affect soccer careers.”

They won’t publicly reveal how they met

It’s unclear when or how Shelton and Rodman met, but that’s intentional. The tennis pro told the New York Post in April 2025 that he and Rodman want to keep some aspects of their relationship private.

Tiafoe had taken credit for setting the pair up, but Rodman denied that claim.

“I don’t know if I want everyone to know the story [of how we met], but I can assure you Frances was not the reason we met or got together. I don’t know why he’s taking credit for that,” she told SportsCenter. “Me and Ben can both cut that out. It was solely a me and Ben thing.”

Shelton backed his girlfriend up.

“Tiafoe had nothing to do with it. He’s taking credit, [saying] ‘Oh, yeah, I put them together. I was like Danny Ainge.’ He’s a liar,” Shelton told the Post with a laugh. “He’s trying to make it about himself. It’s not about him, but that’s funny.”

Shelton added that Rodman was “kind of annoyed by that.”

“She was like, ‘Come on, bro,’ ” Shelton told the outlet. “I think she said something to him a couple times. But we’re all friends.”

They’ve continued to gush over each other on social media

Shelton and Rodman are still in their social media honeymoon phase.

After making their Instagram debut, Rodman posted a sweet close-up photo of the pair on Instagram on March 27. In the photo, she can be seen gazing at her boyfriend as she leans against his chest. Shelton’s face is blocked by his green baseball cap, but he was tagged.

“Dibs 🤭,” Rodman captioned the photo. “Whoever that is he won,” Shelton flirted back in the comments.

As for Shelton, he pinned a slideshow from May 6 to the top of his Instagram feed that features a photo of him and Rodman lovingly looking at each other as they’re walking in Spain.

Rodman shared three comments under the post: “My man my man my mannnnnnn😋,” “Ur everything 🤭❤️” and “My forever obsession.”

Rodman made her players’ box debut at the BMW Open

The Spirit star made her players’ box debut at the BMW Open semifinals in Munich on April 19, 2025.

The outing marked the first time Rodman was spotted cheering her boyfriend on from the players’ box. Footage from the tournament shared on Instagram showed Rodman sitting beside her boyfriend’s father and coach, Bryan, during the match.

Shelton was victorious, beating Francisco Cerundolo and proceeding to the final, per ATP Tour.

Rodman was again spotted with Bryan in the tennis pro’s box for the singles final match on April 20. Shelton lost to Alexander Zverev, per Sports Illustrated.

They’ve spoken publicly about their relationship

Rodman opened up to ESPN’s SportsCenter in late March 2025 about revealing her and Shelton’s relationship to the world.

When asked about the public response, Rodman said, “So, yeah, I’m obviously very happy and hopefully some of the world’s happy. It’s in the public eye, so I can’t really do much about that.”

Shelton had a similar response. He told the Post that while he was “happy for sure” in his relationship, he was surprised by the reaction to their social media announcement.

“I guess I didn’t think it would blow up as much as it did. That’s not why I did it,” Shelton said. “I feel like, you know, posting your girlfriend on Instagram is a more normal thing. I guess because of who it is, is why people went nuts a little bit. But yeah, kinda crazy how much it did blow up … and I realized, ‘Wow, people care about my life that much.’ ”

Read the original article on People