Move over, WAGs: As interest in women's sports rises, it's time to talk about HABs (husbands and boyfriends)

Hailey Van Lith was the No. 11 pick in the WNBA draft on April 15, where her move to join the Chicago Sky became official. As her name was called and she made her way to the stage, the camera panned to capture her biggest supporters in the crowd. One in particular stood out: Van Lith’s boyfriend, Orlando Magic star Jalen Suggs.

“We love a supportive HAB,” someone commented on ESPN’s Instagram post showing footage of the couple embracing after her big moment. What’s a HAB, others wanted to know? It’s an acronym for the “husbands and boyfriends” of female athletes, the commenter explained. “The male version of WAG.”

WAGs — a term used to identify the wives and girlfriends of professional athletes — have long been a part of sports culture. (Not to mention pop culture; when Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, the wives of British soccer stars Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy, respectively, went to court in 2022, the case was dubbed “Wagatha Christie.”) Being famous in one’s own right — see: Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham or Taylor Swift — is no protection from being branded a WAG, though Axios says the latter superstar is part of a “changing guard of WAGs.” The role of a supportive female partner is evolving — but breaking free of the negative stereotypes associated with WAGs isn’t always easy.

It’s a tough term, Kylie Kelce acknowledged in an episode of her Not Gonna Lie podcast earlier this year in which guest Kristin Juszczyk, a fashion designer who happens to be married to Kyle Juszczyk of the San Francisco 49ers, shared how she was trying to redefine that image.

“They really hate the term WAGs because it reduces you to who you're married to,” Charlotte Wilder, co-host of The Sports Gossip Show, tells Yahoo Life.

Then how might people feel about flipping the label on the men cheering their female partners on from the sidelines? We asked sports experts and enthusiasts about the rise of the HABs — and what it can tell us about the changing perception of female sports.

Meet the HABs

The term “HAB” may not yet be widely used, but it’s been in practice well before Suggs. Consider Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian sitting in the stands while wife, Serena Williams, did battle on the tennis court. Or Andrew East, a former football player who’s more likely to be gushing about wife, Shawn Johnson, and her accomplishments as a (now retired) gymnast. Similarly, Jonathan Owens of the Chicago Bears negotiated time away from preseason training to watch wife, Simone Biles, compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Paris Games is where Hunter Woodall, a Paralympic track and field athlete, went viral last summer after celebrating his wife Tara Davis-Woodhall’s gold-medal-winning result in the women’s long jump. Spencer McManes, meanwhile, was there to watch his now-fianceé Gabby Thomas win gold in the women’s 200-meter race while wearing a shirt with her name and likeness on it.

Even influencer and boxer Jake Paul has come into favor with new audiences because of the support he’s shown his fiancée, Jutta Leerdam, a world champion speed skater from the Netherlands. And Connor McCaffery, the boyfriend of WNBA star Caitlin Clark, has become a HAB-to-watch after making headlines related to the romance.

Why are HABs being recognized now?

It has something to do with society becoming more invested in female athletes, according to Risa Isard, assistant professor of sport management at the University of Connecticut. That includes their professional accomplishments as well as their personal lives — and, yes, who they’re dating. Social media has played a big role in this.

“Pre-social media, teams and athletes had to rely on traditional media to tell their story. And we know that traditional media didn’t care about telling these stories [about women in sports],” Isard tells Yahoo Life. “They didn’t value it because they assumed that there was no readership or audience for it.”

Social media, however, offers more exposure. Leagues and teams set up accounts to do their own news blasts that mainstream sports outlets wouldn’t cover. Players followed suit — and got personal.

“It has allowed women athletes to tell their own story and to really reach people on a human level. That’s been really, really monumental,” says Isard.

The phenomenon surrounding the 2020 women’s college basketball recruiting class — made up of Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, Cameron Brink and Van Lith — is a good example. While they’re each recognized as huge talents, their popularity is also attributed to the fanbase that they’ve cultivated online.

“Social media has just made it so much easier and way more accessible to have access to these people, which in turn kind of leads to this parasocial relationship,” says Madeline Hill, Wilder’s podcast co-host and creator of Impersonal Foul, a newsletter focused on sports gossip. “People feel invested in following their lives and what’s going on behind the scenes.”

For a player like Clark, that includes her relationship with McCaffery, who was a fellow athlete at the University of Iowa and is now a member of the coaching staff for the men’s basketball team at Butler University. Clark celebrated their second anniversary with a photo of him embracing her on the sidelines during an Indiana Fever game like a true HAB.

Why does it matter?

It may represent a shift in the way that women are finally being centered in sports. While men’s accomplishments have historically been seen as more important than their female counterparts — like when former professional soccer player Julie Ertz was referred to as the “wife” of NFL player Zach Ertz in a tweet about her team’s inclusion in the World Cup — some male partners of female players are receiving that same treatment.

Marist Liufau, a linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, who appeared at the 2025 WNBA draft to support his girlfriend, Sonia Citron, is an example. As the No. 3 pick, Citron was “drafted higher” than her boyfriend, sports journalist Holly Rowe couldn’t resist pointing out. That doesn’t seem to faze Liufau, who laughed at the observation and has praised Citron’s athleticism in interviews.

However, there’s still more work to be done to make the playing field even, according to Isard. “Men have been used to legitimize women’s sport. Like, ‘Oh, look, the NBA team is here to watch the WNBA team,’ and that’s wonderful. But people should be fans of women’s sport not because the NBA players are, but because it’s really good sport and because the athletes are amazing and because the games are super-exciting and because the fan experience is wonderful,” she says.

It’s also important not to glorify HABs when WAGs of female athletes have already been around. “We couldn’t have this conversation without talking about Cherelle Griner, who tirelessly and publicly took on the mantle of being Brittney Griner’s wife,” says Isard, referring to Cherelle’s advocacy for her spouse when the Atlanta Dream center was arrested in Russia while playing overseas. “In a segment of a sports industry that has a lot of queer athletes, queer fans and queer employees, I don’t want to overlook those amazing storylines and partnerships.”

Will we see more of HABs?

That depends on how the media chooses to represent female athletes and their sports, Hill says. She thinks a bigger spotlight on women’s teams should be prioritized, which would, in turn, lead to more coverage of the personal lives of standout players.

“It starts with the on-the-field coverage of these female athletes and then being able to kind of expand beyond that,” says Hill. “I don’t think it hurts to have more coverage around what’s happening off the field in their lives, whether it’s business ventures or their dating history. But I do think that there’s a fine line. It can’t be sexist coverage.”