Looking out the window of the airplane at the crystal-clear water hitting hard against the sand, Jones softly hummed, “Home sweet home. Home sweet home. No matter which part of the world I roam, The Bahamas is my home,” a classic groove she learned as a kid. A groove that always pops into her head as she flies to her favorite place and this time it happened on her flight from Russia to Bahamas in 2022.

At this time, Jones had everything while returning to her home- an illustrious WNBA career, a supportive family, and a loving girlfriend. Although Jones always preferred to keep her relationship as private as possible, in mid-2022, she made her relationship with Nesha public. It was none other than love that urged Jones to take a bold move. Sounds interesting, right? Let’s delve deeper into the unheard tale of the couple.

Basketball: a therapy

Growing up, Jonquel Jones often witnessed the drawbacks of being raised in a stereotypical society. She was always told what to do and what to wear to look like a girl. “I feel like a lot of times there were things that little girls weren’t supposed to do…Like, ‘You’re a girl, you’re not supposed to be whistling.'”

But once Jones found basketball, she understood none of that mattered. Here, more than anything else, making a shot, getting a rebound, and crossing up a defender was the focus. “But for as long as I’ve known myself, I’ve known the game of basketball,” Jones told ESPN while recalling her days when she followed her dad to practice just to watch him coach a group of boys.

From there, basketball was something she knew interested her the most. So whenever her mother told her to put down a basketball to go to church, Jones sneaked over to her grandmother’s house to skip that. All this was to play all day at the court her grandmother had in her yard. By middle school, she had outgrown all possible opportunities in the Bahamas as a basketball player. And this somehow paved her path to the USA.

Battling inner feelings

Amazed by her game, McPhee-McCuin asked Jones to play in the US. After a couple of months and a series of phone calls, she finally played for Diane Richardson at Riverdale Baptist School to develop her game. At the same time, she struggled to reconcile her identity as she grew up with the traditions of a country that still does not recognize same-sex marriages.

Right before leaving to play at Riverdale, she remembers watching a game where a girl caught her eye. Despite being unsure about her feelings, Jones could not stop herself from looking at her. But as her cousin ran up to her saying, “I like her,” Jones nearly jumped out of her skin.

She already knew what her church would think, and how her father and mother would respond. “And so I was like, ‘Okay, this is definitely something that I should not tell anybody…I should just keep it to myself.'” Eventually, she gathered the courage to accept herself. Before openly coming out as gay, she had a girlfriend only a few people knew about.

“I met her at a basketball tournament.” Both had long conversations sandwiched between schoolwork and practice. In fact, she was the one who changed Jones’ style a bit, making her wear polo shirts. But everything changed as she went to college. Jones dumped all her polos and broke off all ties with her.

It was primarily due to her traditional thinking that contradicted her feelings. The blue dress she stunned in at the WNBA draft and the form-fitting dress she wore on the WNBA All-Star carpet in 2017, was just an exhibit of the inner battle she was going through. “When I look at those pictures, I cringe because I know it wasn’t me…I was trying too hard to be something I wasn’t.” But instead of limiting herself, Jones embraced all of who she was.

How did Jonquel Jones’ relationship with Nesha impact her?

During the 2019 WNBA All-Star Game, Jonquel Jones showed up dressing in a masculine outfit and announced, “I’m openly out and dressing differently.” She openly herself as a lesbian. As it turned out, all this had been a reflection of a serious relationship Jones had since 2018.

Nearly four years later, Jones posted a couple of pictures that featured a unique broad smile with a caption, “Thanks for loving me on my lowest days and being there for me through it all. You get my humor. You get my moods, you get it all.” On April 2023, Jones and her partner finally announced their engagement. Nesha, a nail technician and owner of The Dollhouse Nail Company in Brooklyn, New York, finally wore a diamond ring reflecting her love for Jones.

All this happened when the couple enjoyed their holiday at Goldwyn Resort in the Bahamas, ironically a place that still won’t legitimize them even if they tied the knot. Fast forward to 2024, the couple hasn’t announced their marriage date. While Nesha is busy with her nail salon, Jones is having impressive plays on the court.