The Commanders assistant defensive backs coach, William Gay, has no wife but was previously engaged to an Olympian. Gay was engaged to Natasha Hastings, the two-time Olympic Gold medalist, in 2018.
The two athletes also have a son named William Rydell Gay, Jr., whom they sweetly call Liam. Their son was born in 2019, but the couple has since been separated, and their engagement couldn’t flourish into marriage.
Gay spent 10 of his NFL seasons as a cornerback for the Steelers. He retired in 2018 following a training camp with the New York Giants. Gay’s coaching journey began a year later.
He became a coaching intern under Mike Tomlin for the 2019 season and later landed a job with Missouri State, coaching defensive backs in 2020.
In 2023, he earned a coaching fellowship with the Cowboys, and in January, he announced he was joining Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns as an analyst. But now, we will see William return to the NFL.
William Gay Wife: Is Commanders New DB Coach Married?
William Gay has no wife but was previously engaged to Natasha Hastings. The former Steelers cornerback, William, went down on one knee in 2018, but he never tied the knot with the Olympian.
He had previously shared the engagement post on his Instagram handle but has since deleted the post. William’s former fiance, Hastings, is a 400-meter track and field sprinter. She began her career at an early age and participated in the USATF Junior Olympics.
Who Is Natasha Hastings?
A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Hastings became known as “the 400M Diva.” During her time, at the University of South Carolina, Hastings won the NCAA title in 2007 in the 400 meters, outdoors and indoors.
Hastings’ time of 50.15 was the second fastest ever at the collegiate level. She also won the Southeastern Conference Championship that year. In 2008, Hastings made it to the USA Olympic Track and Field Team and participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
She won an Olympic Gold Medal in the Women’s 4x400m relay team race. Natasha represented the country in the 2013 World Championships and finished fourth.
In 2015, in the same competition, Hastings won a silver medal in the 4×400 meters. In 2016, she once again won gold in the same category.
The New York native Hastings won 13 gold medals in her storied career. Natasha announced her retirement from the field in 2022 and said she wanted to work as a sports psychologist.
In her statement to The Players Tribune, Natasha said, “I want to be a Black woman working as a psychologist in a field that has historically been dominated by men and has far too few therapists who are women of color.”
In 2023, Natasha graduated from The Chicago School with a master’s degree in clinical mental health and is currently working with Under Armour as an HPS Consultant.
Natasha established The Natasha Hastings Foundation in 2018. The Olympian gold medalist established the foundation to inspire and financially help women who have qualified for their high school nationals but may not otherwise be able to afford to attend.
William And Natasha Share A Son
The former athletes, Natasha and William, welcomed their only child, William Rydell Gay, Jr., on August 6, 2019. Natasha has previously shared her pregnancy story with the Maeband website.
In her pregnancy journal, Natasha shared her fear of what it meant for her career. When she was five months pregnant and showing, Natasha finally worked up the courage to call her sponsor, Under Armour.
The Olympian expected to be dropped, but to her surprise, they were excited for her. In her interview with CNBC, Hastings said, “It was almost like I had tortured myself for five months thinking about all the possible outcomes.”
But it looks like after the birth of their son, William, and Natasha decided to go their separate ways. On their son’s first birthday, William shared an Instagram post alluding to the fact that they were no longer together.
He shared a photo of him and Natasha with their son, Liam, and captioned the post, “We may have some differences as adults, but raising Liam will take maximum effort from both sides. He has a Mom and Dad that loves him unconditionally.”
Natasha and William have shared several posts with their son on their respective Instagram handles. Last year, as she graduated with her master’s degree, Natasha had her son attend the ceremony.
The former NFL player has also been seen taking his son to work, with several pictures of Liam on the football field.
