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Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry called out several podcasters for their comments regarding his wife, Ayesha Curry, and her lead-acting role in the Roku Channel movie “Second Chance Holiday” — in particular a scene in which she shares a kiss with co-star Matthew Daddario.
In a video posted Wednesday on Instagram, the four-time NBA champion mentioned three podcasters in particular — former NBA players Gilbert Arenas and Nick Young, and former NFL player Emmanuel Acho — while wrapping in anyone else giving “an opinion on something you don’t really know about.”
Arenas, Young and Acho have all since apologized.
Here’s how we got here.
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‘Second Chance Holiday’
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Stephen and Ayesha first met as children in a Charlotte, N.C., church youth group and reconnected in 2008, when he was a star player at Davidson College and she was pursuing acting and modeling in Los Angeles. They were married in 2011 and have four children, ages 2-14.
Ayesha is an entrepreneur and TV personality who has hosted and appeared in a number of cooking shows. Through the years, she has also continued to pursue acting, with appearances in such shows as “Hannah Montana” and “Good Luck Charlie.” More recently, she had supporting roles in the romantic-comedies “Irish Wish” in 2024 and “Joy to the World” in 2005.
“Second Chance Holiday” is her first major role as a lead actor. According to a one-sentence summary on IMDb, she plays “dating expert” Chelsey Banks, who is “determined to break her so-called ‘curse’ of always getting dumped during the holiday season.”
When the movie dropped on Nov. 5, Ayesha posted some photos and video from the experience on Instagram.
“So grateful,” she wrote.
Her husband wrote in the comments, “Love you and proud of you.”
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The kissing scene
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One scene features Ayesha and Daddario sharing a 5-second kiss. Naturally, folks on social media had some very mature reactions, such as “I’ve never seen her look at Steph like this,” and “can’t believe my goat Steph gotta go through this” and “grounds for a divorce.”
Ayesha even jumped into one of the threads. “It’s not even real,” she wrote, adding a laughing emoji, “you guys are annoying.”
The kiss also became a topic on several podcasts. Arenas and Young discussed it Sunday on their “We Said What We Said” podcast, with Arenas doing most of the talking and Young, who played with Stephen on the Warriors during the 2017-2018 season, mainly expressing agreement.
“When you’re talking about an American family, [Stephen] is the definition of what everybody sees as a father,” Arenas said. “Got the best kids. The only blemish in the family is the wife in a sense ‘cause she doesn’t act like the other superstars’ wives.
“We don’t want to hear you,” Arenas said of the public’s feelings on star athletes’ significant others. “We just want to know you’re there, you’re fine, you are taking the pictures. But we don’t want to know you.”
In another video, posted Tuesday, Arenas tried explaining that he had been talking about Ayesha‘s behavior only in comparison with that of her husband.
“She’s not doing anything wrong as for just women themselves. She’s not,” Arenas said. “But you’ve got to remember, he’s 100% clean. … Like he’s he is the pope in a sense, right? You make one mistake, you are the worst out of the two, is basically what I’m saying.”
In an episode of the “Speakeasy” podcast titled “VIDEO: Steph Curry’s Wife KISSES ANOTHER MAN!” the unmarried Acho states he wouldn’t be OK with a significant other kissing someone else in a movie.
“It wouldn’t be me and it couldn’t be me,” Acho said. “Here’s the thing. I don’t think people were meant genetically, physically, anatomically, spiritually designed to watch their partner kiss another person, whether it’s done in the name of acting or not. I just do not think that we were like physically and emotionally designed for that.”
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Stephen Curry’s response
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Midway through this week, Stephen issued a soft-spoken, yet strongly worded response to all the talk.
“I’ve been hearing a lot of noise, and usually the noise doesn’t bother me, doesn’t bother Ayesha,” the two-time league MVP and 12-time All Star said. “But this one in particular, when trying to step on the accomplishments of my wife, and leading podcast tapings and topics, and giving opinions on somebody else’s wife — Nick, Gil, Emmanuel, and anybody else who feels the need to jump in and give an opinion on something you don’t really know about, something that kind of speaks to bigger conversation on how you view women in this world and what they’re allowed and what they’re not allowed to do, even the ignorance behind how acting works — obviously, I tried to laugh this one off, but something needs to be said.
“Anytime Ayesha Curry shows up in your headline, I kindly suggest you just give the, you know, the happy hands, the congratulations, and maybe just maybe, you know, the apology can be as loud as y’all leading y’all shows with this topic. So appreciate the free pub. Thank you for giving a nice shout out to ‘Second Chance Holiday,’ which y’all can find on Roku, starring Aisha Curry.”
In his 18th NBA season, Curry is averaging 27.8 points a game. The Warriors announced Thursday that he will miss at least two weeks because of a torn oblique muscle.
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The apologies
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Within two hours of Curry posting his video, Arenas and Young responded in a video, in which Arenas first tried to explain himself yet again. At one point, Young cut him off.
“I’m sorry, Steph,” Young said, who seemed sincere while also ribbing his co-host for seemingly doubling down. “You’re my dog. I love you. If I said anything, I apologize like a man. I’m sorry.”
“No, no, no I’m sorry,” Arenas said. “I’m sorry if he’s offended.”
Later on Wednesday, they posted another video from the following day’s “We Said What We Said” episode in which they addressed the matter yet again. Arenas said that being called out by someone of Stephen‘s stature made him realize the seriousness of the situation.
“I feel so bad because it it I wasn’t trying to say that, right?” Arenas said. “I’m very sorry. I’m not pissing off God. I’m sorry, ‘cause the fact that you had to speak, I know it’s serious. I know you are upset.”
Young added, “I felt like a bad human today after that.”
Acho also addressed the matter on his show.
“Steph, I’m sorry, not just for offending you, potentially offending your wife,” Acho said. “I’m sorry for how that may have made you feel, seeing headlines, commentary, all these other things about your wife. I’m sorry for the reaction that it may have caused internally, viscerally, amongst you, the central nervous system, how it may have set that off.
“I’m also sorry for any sort of tiff or rift that it may have caused behind the scenes. I am sorry for that. Not ‘my bad.’ Not ‘that’s on me.’ Not ‘hey, you know what I mean?’ No, no, no. None of that. I’m sorry.”
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