Topline
Basketball star Brittney Griner on Wednesday said she had contemplated taking her own life after being arrested by Russian authorities in 2022, in her first televised interview discussing her nearly ten-month imprisonment.
Brittney Griner spoke at length about her imprisonment in Russia for the first time in a televised ... [+]
Key Facts
In the interview, which aired on ABC News on Wednesday night, Griner said “I wanted to take my life more than once in the first weeks,” adding she felt like leaving the place “so badly.”
The WNBA star eventually decided against it, because she feared Russian authorities would not release her body to her family if it happened.
Griner also spoke about the conditions of her prison cell, which had a mattress with “a huge blood stain on it…no soap, no toilet paper,” all of which made her feel “less than human.”
In a separate interview with the New York Times, she also talked about contemplating suicide while in prison and mentioned her poor living conditions in Russia, which made her feel “horrible” and prison guards “snickered” and looked at her through a peephole in her cell.
Griner said she also faced a psychiatric evaluation after her arrest and was worried about getting institutionalized because Russian authorities consider homosexuality a mental illness.
The basketball star said her bunkmate warned her against getting medical exams in prison due to the prevalence of HIV and herpes, and later heard the person who treated her for a severe eye infection later was a veterinarian.
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Crucial Quote
Griner told ABC about being forced to write a letter to Vladimir Putin before her release. “They made me write this letter. It was in Russian. I had to ask for forgiveness and thanks from their so-called great leader. I didn’t want to do it, but at the same time I wanted to come home.”
Tangent
Griner said when she got on the plane to fly back home she was hoping to see Paul Whelan, the former U.S. Marine who was detained in Russia in December 2018, on board. “When I walked on and I didn’t see him, I thought okay maybe I’m early, maybe he’s next,” she said. “But when they closed the door I was like, are you serious? You’re not going to let this man come home right now?”
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
Further Reading
‘I Will Never Forget Any of It’: Brittney Griner Is Ready to Talk (The New York Times)
