Key Takeaways:
- Professional soccer play Trinity Rodman and tennis player Ben Shelton have been dating since at least March 2025.
- Rodman and Shelton have a long-distance relationship but try to spend as much time together as they can.
- Rodman cheered Shelton on during his runs at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this year.
Trinity Rodman, one of the top soccer players in the United States, and Ben Shelton, one of tennis’s fastest-rising stars, have built a relationship that’s as dynamic as their careers. But even with supportive social media posts and public appearances, the two athletes have kept their romance relatively low-key.
Here’s a look at Rodman and Shelton’s relationship timeline.
Hints appeared on TikTok in early March 2025
Fans of Trinity Rodman are probably familiar with the USWNT forward’s love of TikTok, where she has more than 324,500 followers. In early March, the pair joined a TikTok trend that hinted at “shooting their shot” with each other. Rodman later referenced the moment by commenting on Shelton’s Instagram, “Shooters shoot I guess,” marking what appears to be the beginning of their relationship’s presence on social media.
They went Instagram official later that month
An Instagram hard launch is when someone publicly confirms a relationship by posting clear, direct photos with their partner for the first time. A sly way to do it is dropping the couple shot at the end of the carousel—which is exactly what Shelton did when he posted his and Rodman’s first photo as a couple together on social media on March 17.
Coco Gauff, the 2023 U.S. Open women’s singles champion, took notice and commented, “hard launchhhhh !!”
Rodman followed up with her own post 10 days later, with the caption, “Dibs 🤭” Her USWNT teammate Alyssa Thompson commented, “The softest hard launch.”
“I feel like, you know, posting your girlfriend on Instagram is a more normal thing,” Shelton later told the New York Post. “I guess because of who it is, is why people went nuts a little bit. But yeah, kinda crazy how much it did blow up… and I realized, ‘wow, people care about my life that much.’ But yeah, [we’re] happy for sure.”
Rodman cheered Shelton on at the Munich Open in April 2025
After scoring a goal for the U.S. in a win over Brazil on April 5, Rodman stepped away from the pitch and went on medical leave indefinitely to address ongoing chronic back pain. One third of last summer’s sensational Triple Espresso at the Paris Olympics, Rodman told reporters earlier this year that she doesn’t think her back “will ever be 100%” again.
In the meantime, Rodman attended the BMW Open in Munich, Germany later that month, where Shelton eventually fell to No. 1-seeded Alexander Zverev in the final.
The couple have learned how to navigate the spotlight together
Most of Rodman’s TikTok posts are fun and light videos with her teammates, either on the USWNT or the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. But she has a few on there with Shelton, including a very sweet one posted on April 28 with the caption, “My safety blanket... you make everyday better.”
“The spotlight or attention, it seems to always to be on,” Shelton told Town & Country in June as he was preparing for Wimbledon 2025. “Regardless of what I’m doing there will be someone talking about me or posting about me, and it’s just the way life is these days. Obviously that’s all positive stuff, so it is great. It’s been cool to get to know someone who goes through a lot of the same things in the spotlight, the media attention, playing for the United States, and the contrast between soccer and tennis and the similarities of both being professional athletes.”
They’re learning how to manage a long distance relationship
With two very active and successful athletic careers, both Shelton and Rodman are on the road often. After Rodman’s recent injury, she was able to manage her rehab schedule and move it to Europe while Shelton has been on the tennis circuit there, including stops at the Madrid Open and French Open.
USWNT head coach Emma Hayes said in June, however, that Rodman was on track to return to the pitch for regular practice in July.
“It has its challenges, but it’s definitely worth it,” Shelton told Town & Country about being long-distance. “It’s not something that we’re not used to—it’s been the story of our lives, especially me being on the road all the time. It’s just normal life stuff.”
Trinity was in Ben’s player’s box throughout Wimbledon
Shelton was on a tear throughout the only grass-court Grand Slam of the tennis tour in 2025. And his player’s box is full this year with his parents, Bryan and Lisa, his sister Emma, and of course, Rodman. “I have a great team. My parents are here, my girlfriend’s here. Also, my sister’s here,” he told the crowd after his third round win over Marton Fucsovics.
But Rodman, an Olympic champion herself, called out Wimbledon broadcasters for not only repeatedly referring to her as the daughter of her estranged father but also misnaming her as “Tiffany.”
“For those who don’t know, my name is Trinity, not Tiffany,” Rodman wrote on her Instagram Stories on July 7. “Also, for Ben’s matches, he has his family there as his support system, which includes his dad… My dad’s not even in my life no need to bring him up during his matches when I don’t even want him talked about during mine. It’s his and his loved ones’ moment. Thank you.”
She cheered him on at the U.S. Open in August 2025
Rodman has since come off the injury list and rejoined the Washington Spirit. She was at the team’s away match against Bay FC in San Francisco on August 23. So it was a surprise for some fans to see her in Shelton’s box for his opening match at the U.S. Open in New York the following afternoon. He said during the post-match interview that she took the red-eye flight to be there.
Rodman even got to surprise Shelton by asking him a question at his post-match conference on August 27. “So how did it feel not being able to serve faster than 135 today?” she teased. In response, Shelton said, “They’ll let anyone in the room at this point.”
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.
