Joel Embiid, the Cameroonian professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers, has been making headlines both on and off the court. He made history by leading the NBA in scoring during both the 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons, making him the first center and seven-footer to do so since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000. He also became the first center since Moses Malone in 1982 to average over 30 points per game and the first foreign player to lead the NBA in scoring. Additionally, in 2023, Embiid received his first NBA Most Valuable Player Award.
While he’s been leading the NBA in scoring and winning awards, his personal life has also been in the spotlight. Embiid and his girlfriend, Anne de Paula, have been dating since 2018 and welcomed their son, Arthur, in September 2020. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at who Anne de Paula is, where she comes from, and what she does.
Who Is Joel Embiid’s Girlfriend, Anne de Paula?
Anne de Paula is a Brazilian model born on March 31, 1995, in Rio de Janeiro. Before her modeling career took off, she thought she would follow in her parent’s footsteps and become a medical professional. Her mother is an X-ray technician, and her father is a doctor. However, her love for soccer and her mother’s encouragement led her to pursue a career in modeling. She did her first photo shoot around the age of 12 and signed a modeling contract at 14.
De Paula is also a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, having made her debut during the 2017 model search, where she won the fan vote and went on to become a rookie in 2018. She has been featured in the annual issue four times, shooting in Anguilla, Nevis, Kenya, and the Dominican Republic.
While modeling is her primary career focus at the moment, she hopes to one day start her own business and help her family “lead a better life.” In a 2019 interview with Sports Illustrated, she said, “I want to buy my family my house. My biggest goal is to make the people I love happy and give them everything I can.”
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How Did Anne De Paula And Joel Embiid Meet?
Joel Embiid and Anne de Paula met through a mutual friend at a dinner in New York City in 2018. They started out as friends and FaceTimed every day for a while before they started dating. They started out as friends and FaceTimed every day for a while before they started dating. In honor of Valentine’s Day 2019, Embiid shared a sweet message alongside a photo of himself and de Paula in matching white hoodies that read “lovers” in red down the left sleeve. “Thank you for dealing with my African crazy a– and allowing me to be ME,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’ve trusted your process, you’ve trusted mine and it brought us to where we are.”
Their relationship seems to be going strong, with de Paula telling ESPN in 2021, “He just has this personality where he wants to motivate you. He pushes his friends, family, and now Arthur to be the best they can be. That’s the type of person you want to have around.” It’s clear that the couple supports each other’s dreams and aspirations.
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What Else Do We Know About Anne De Paula?
Aside from being a model, Anne de Paula is also trilingual. She speaks Portuguese, English, and French, the latter of which she shares with Joel Embiid. As they got to know each other better, they found out how much they had in common. Both of them love sports, and when they were young, they left their home countries to go after their dreams. Embiid is from Cameroon, but he started playing basketball in the U.S. with the Kansas Jayhawks.
De Paula is also a self-professed tomboy and played soccer for about six years, where she was a goalie. She told Fox News in 2018, “I loved sports, but I also liked this girly version of myself. I wasn’t popular in school. I wasn’t successful with the boys. They never really looked at me like a girl because I was always playing with them… So I just started doing more and more photos until my mom sent me to an agency at 13. So she was the one who got me into it!” Though modeling is her main career focus at the moment, she hopes to one day help her family “lead a better life” and start her own business.