Shaun Alexander comes from a big family. His father had Shaun as well as 9 other children with several women. But still, no one could have predicted that he’d actually exceed his father’s numbers here.
Advertisement
Shaun Alexander has had 13 kids with his wife Valerie, and they aren’t done yet. Last week, Alexander and his wife revealed that they were expecting their 14th child early next year. And of course, Shannon Sharpe got his hands on the story.
Sharpe talked about Alexander’s announcement last week on Night Cap, and he brought Alexander on the show on Tuesday to talk about his family as well as his stellar career with the Seattle Seahawks.
While some may view the constant pregnancy as too tough on Valerie—she has never not been pregnant for more than 2.5 years—Alexander says that it was actually she who’s always wanted to have as many kids as they can.
“It was actually her idea. She said, ‘What if God just said I could have as many as I wanted. And I was like, well, you know, let’s do it! I was in!” Alexander laughed.
Alexander said he originally only wanted five or six children—still a very large family by modern standards—but that he and his wife decided they’d have kids as long as God would allow them to. When asked if he was “done” yet, Alexander said he wasn’t going to put a cap on anything.
“We never say we’re done. We’re just like, alright, let it ride. So I thought we were done because we didn’t have no more kids. You know what I’m saying!” he added, laughing again!
Alexander says that he and his wife met on his very first day in Seattle after being drafted in the first round by the Seahawks in 2000. The pair were introduced at a teammate’s barbecue. Valerie was the teammate’s girlfriend’s roommate at the time and evidently, nothing seems to have been able to stop Alexander.
The three-time Pro Bowler also revealed in quick detail the ages of his 13 children. His three oldest are girls, 22, 20, and 18 years old, with the oldest currently a senior in college and the 18-year-old recently graduating high school as a star track athlete. Then came two boys, 16 and 14 years old, followed by a 13-year-old girl.
There’s another daughter that turns 12 in October and his third and final son is 10. The couple also had a daughter who passed away at just 70 days old that would be eight this year. The youngest ones are 7, 5, 3, and his youngest is 2 years old. Well, soon to be second-youngest!
Sharpe couldn’t help but make some jokes after hearing such a dizzying familial break down. “What do ya’ll drive! What do you drive like a yellow school bus? I’m just trying to figure out how you get all these kids around!” he laughed.
Sharpe also asked what Alexander’s grocery bill must look like with so many mouths to feed. Alexander says that his family does runs to once each to Costco, the local grocers, and Whole Foods every week. We can’t even imagine what that price tag would be. It sure is a good thing he made some millions during his nine-year NFL career.
