Alex Morgan

I know.

We have a short list and we have a favorite.

Especially for you, I believe you've said it's another girl. Correct. So, I mean, for girls, it's really hard to figure out four names that you really like. Yes. I mean, we know what we like as women, but we're also kind of indecisive. Don't tell men that. Yes. Because they think that we can, you know...

make decisions on behalf of anyone and everyone, which we do, but we have this like- Because we're forced to really. We're forced to. But yeah, that's hard to have four of the same gender to try to come up with names. Although Wyatt is such a cute name and now it's like we can pick from the boys' names, you know, Charlie, Wyatt.

I am actually really looking forward to it. I feel... So my daughter is... Four and a half. So she'll be almost five when the next baby is born. So I think she'll be really helpful. Me and my husband just celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary. So it's kind of weird having our second child after we've been married for 10 years. That's not typical. So I think that we are overdue.

I will say that...

Which is great. I mean, they just need to have a task and it's perfect. And they feel like they're with you, but then still being helpful. Yes.

So I think that it really started last offseason. Well, actually, let me back up. After the last World Cup in 2019, winning that World Cup, I was like, okay, I'm still pretty young. I still have a lot to give, but I'm happy with where I am. And I could not step on the soccer field again if... I'm injured or I don't come back from having a baby and feel myself.

So that's when we decided to have a baby. And then I did feel good and I missed it when I was pregnant. So I came back, played in the Olympics that was delayed a year and then the World Cup in 23. And at that point, I was just like, I don't know that there's much more that I can give. And I don't know that there's much more that I'm going to get. I've fulfilled everything I've wanted to do.

I'm at a point now where there's a lot of other things that interest me. I'm building businesses off the field. I'm really busy. And... we're settled in San Diego and we're so happy. So throughout the off season, I was this last off season. I was like, okay, this is going to be my last year, I think.

And then me and my husband had like two bottles of wine one night and we just like, I just was super honest. And I think it was just like an epiphany. I was like, yeah, this is, this is it. Like, this is the last year, like regardless of what happens, I want to go, of course, I want to try to go to Olympics. I want to try to win a championship.

I want to do all the things, but it doesn't really matter what happens throughout the season. I'm done no matter what. Um, so I kind of just made that like commitment to myself. Um, And, you know, a lot of things didn't go planned. Baby also being part of that. It's weird to say I got knocked up after being with my husband for 17 years.

So that was that was interesting to have a surprise pregnancy, but it like all worked out perfectly. And at the end of the day, I'm just so happy with the way that everything was meant to go down.

Yeah, it did definitely feel like I was trying to take in every moment and remember the small things a little bit more. And it's hard to say enjoy them more because I feel like I was in a constant state of stress and anxiety just with the two teams and anxiety.

not really have having told anyone that i was going to retire i didn't want to say it too early because then i didn't want it to be this like whole big retirement tour um so it was it was like this big dark secret um in a way uh but i was also trying to just take everything in like one last time like by myself or with my family that knew um and the plan was always to then

announce my retirement when I did, it was just not to announce my retirement and play my last game like three days later because I had a, um, because I was three months pregnant. So that was kind of like the curve ball in this all.

Um, but it was really nice like having that time knowing like this is a last, like regardless and, um, just soaking it all in and knowing that like, this is a lot of what I knew for the last like 15 years and, And a lot of change was coming. And so I think I did pretty well to prepare myself for that. But regardless, it was way more emotional than I expected. I'm not really an emotional person.

I don't cry a lot. I don't show a lot of emotion. I don't know if that's because of sport or what. But I just feel like for a week, I would break down in the car by myself just crying. And not like a bad cry, just kind of like... Had to release it. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

I was playing, yeah, after like three. Yeah.

Well, I, you know, just having talked to a lot of other female athletes that I've been through it, we all have our own journeys, um, you know, birth and complications or not. And then, you know, trying to do everything and wanting to be with your baby, but then also getting back to getting your body back to where it needs to be. So that was... That was tough for sure.

And then the Olympics were delayed and I was like, oh, I can actually go to the Olympics now that I didn't miss it because of COVID. So then I moved to London when my daughter was four months old because that was the only league that was up and running really during COVID because the U.S. League wasn't up and running. So my husband...

regretfully told me, you should go just like play some games in England. And I was like, that's such a good idea. I should go do that. And three days later, I was on a flight to England. And my husband was like, wait, what? I was like, kind of joking. No, I went and I... like he was playing too in Florida. And so that was tough. But this time around, it's like so much different.

And I'm really excited for the difference of the two pregnancies and births and just like infant stage because I actually get to spend way more time with the baby. But going through the first months of pregnancy this time around were so rough because I was getting like crazy migraines, like super nauseous, so tired.

And we were like flying to Panama, playing in 95 degree weather where it's like 100% humid. We were going through all these like coaching changes and like there was so much stress going

involved outside of this and then i'm figuring out how i'm gonna tell everyone that i'm like retiring and i'm pregnant and i'm done playing soccer for good oh it was a lot and i just feel like i would hold it together the moment i would enter the training facility and the moment i would leave it was just like i needed my bed like now like i was like not a real human at that time like with my daughter i was just like mom's tired

please go with daddy or take your iPad.

Women have been betting on ourselves, especially female athletes our whole lives. So why not do this as an extension of that? So building together over like from 2018, 19, 20 and launching it in 21 was another thing of just like betting on myself and being like, there are incredible stories that female athletes have,

um, have not told that I want to give a platform to, um, there's a community of female athletes and fans that want to feel like there's a place that they can like call home in that, um, in that it's, you know, somewhere that they feel like women's sports is at the forefront. So that's where Together was like born out of.

And we highlight anything and everything, not just like the big sports and, you know, soccer and basketball and Olympic sports, but we've done a, you know, girls skating club in New York City. We highlighted, you know, surfers in Hawaii and female boxers and, And anyone and everyone that we feel like never really had the platform before, that's what we want to provide to them.

And now we're in our fourth year and it's going really well. And I'm very proud of the work that we've done.

Yeah, that was, that's probably if someone asks like my greatest achievement, um, I don't know that it's my biggest goal I've ever scored or the World Cup or the Olympics.

It's achieving equal pay on the international stage and creating that sort of domino effect or as we like to say, butterfly effect that helped other women in other countries and in the US with their leagues and their teams fight for equality in their sport and outside of sport too.

Uh, it was many years of fighting with our employer, um, which was weird to show up and be working, you know, playing on behalf of us soccer and going and, you know, having these meetings. And I was a part of, you know, the athletes council. So I would go and I'd see everything I would see. I would see everything.

People on other councils step up and say, you guys don't deserve as much as you're getting because or as much as you're trying to get. You're going to be taken away from the kids and you're going to be taken away from these other. And I'm like, we're not trying to take away from anyone else. We're just trying to get what we deserve. We open the books.

We're seeing the revenue that we're bringing in. It's just as much as the men. Irregardless, we should still be. getting the same contracts, irregardless of that.

But seeing the revenue, we were like, and we have proof and you're still fighting us without all this investment, without us on primetime, without us like getting on TV as much as the men, without FIFA stepping up and compensating the federation for the women's side as much as they do for the men's side. So all of these things, we had a great argument, a great PR team, great legal team.

And achieved equal pay finally in 2022. And that was like a moment that it was like, okay, this has changed forever. And it, you know, it's not just like the ones who were named in the lawsuit and the, you know, us that kind of like follow through with it, but it was also the ones that started it, you know, the Mia Hams, Julie Fowdy, Brandy Chastain, all of them that really, you

went around the country in 99, like selling tickets for the women's world cup, like by themselves to get people into the stadiums to be like, watch us, you'll enjoy this product. Trust me. And fans did. And, um, and it was incredible, but you know, it started back then. And I feel like it was just like us continuing on that fight.

Um, but we got to a point where like, it could not continue on any longer like this. And, um, And that's where we were able to settle and achieve equal pay and back pay.

Yeah, well, I mean, they just don't have to have the distraction of fighting their employer over how many coaches are there in comparison to the men. The fact that we used to get commercial flights and like I sat on a middle seat to London in 2012 for the Olympics, like the backseat, like the bathroom was behind my back in a middle seat.

Just like not having to worry about that is great for these players. And I think that's like, Some of us older, more experienced players who were going through this lawsuit and really spearheading it day-to-day with our legal team realized we're not necessarily going to be the beneficiaries of this lawsuit more than...

more than actually like the 18 21 year olds that are just coming in because they're going to be the ones that hopefully won't even know a difference between the women's team and the men's team they won't even really understand that at one point um not only was the pay vastly different but the treatment and like the flights the number of people on staff etc were

We're always, always, always a hot topic for discussion and always a fight that we had to had to bring to the table like there was nothing ever given. And now for them to step into it and just have to play. I mean, no wonder the quality has just like gone through the roof, which is why it was like easier for me to retire because I was like. I am not the best anymore.

And I am fine with that because there are 21-year-olds that are far better than me and are going to go far more places and going to score far more goals than I do. And that's exactly what I fought for, was the opportunity for them to be able to do that and just worry about playing soccer, not worry about having to fight for making enough money to be able to play soccer.

Yeah. And I think that the fight was always like personal, but when I had a daughter, I was like, okay, it's even more personal now. Like I, this just hits home even more.

I did. A Barbie I gave my daughter when she was like five months old and she like bit the head off. So

That's a hard question because I, I want to think that I do, but I, but I feel like it's, it is, it is hard to comprehend because I surround myself with like, just so much family and friends that I'm just like Alex to them or a mom or I'm a sister or whatever, a wife. So, Um, it's really nice that it's just like normal, um, with all of them.

Um, and so in a way I feel like maybe I don't like fully comprehend, like when someone's like, Oh, my daughter like has you all over her wall and this or that I'm like, Oh, that's so awesome. Like, I'm so glad that I could help her and, you know, her journey with soccer, whatever it is. Um, But do I fully comprehend it? Maybe not.

Thank you. I really appreciate it. I think having just a strong relationship. like female figure in my life. Like I do with my mom, um, having three girls, she, um, you know, work during the day, did night school, always made sure to be present for us in all of our sporting events. Um, always had dinner on the table, like almost feel like, um, did it all.

And you're like wondering how, like, I'm thinking back to myself thinking I have one child and barely surviving hat. Like, how did she do it? Um, I think like helps like when I, you know, growing up, I'm like, oh, I feel like I can do it all too. She did it all. So I think that that has definitely helped me throughout life. throughout my career.

I mean, I just want to say thanks for doing this podcast and make and just like, it's so amazing to see you just like being really raw and honest and just how that's what people love to hear and need and like resonate with. So I'm just so happy to be on this podcast.

Thanks for having me, Kylie.

Thank you. And you with your fourth. Yes. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Amazing. How are you feeling? I'm feeling pretty good right now. I feel like since I got through retirement and I was playing up till I was three months pregnant, that was rough. And now it's like life is so much less stressful without sports. Like you can't even... I mean, you probably understand, but most people probably couldn't.

And it's just so nice just giving my body like the time that it needs. So I'm good. How are you? We're like due very close, like within a week.

Her name's just Charlie.