Former New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre has remained in the public eye long after his retirement. His wife, Deanna Favre, has opened up over the years about their marriage and relationship issues, his battle with addiction and her cancer diagnosis.
The couple are in the headlines following the release of the new Netflix documentary “Untold: The Fall of Favre,” which focuses in part on a 2010 scandal in which he was accused of sending sexually explicit photos and messages to New York Jets game-day host Jenn Sterger. Sterger describes the behavior as “unwanted” in the documentary.
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Deanna Favre has not held back about the fact that the couple have had issues in their marriage over the years.
“I’m handling this through faith,” Deanna Favre said when asked about Sterger’s accusations in the documentary.
Deanna Favre wrote an article for Guideposts in which she discusses various personal tragedies, including being diagnosed with breast cancer, her brother’s tragic death in an ATV accident, and her husband’s painkiller addiction.
“That first week of October 2004 was tough, one of those weeks where right out of the blue your life will never be the same again,” Deanna Favre wrote.
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When her breast cancer was diagnosed, “Brett was on the phone in minutes. All he could say was, ‘Oh, God,'” Deanna Favre wrote. The couple grew up together in small-town Mississippi, were high school sweethearts, had two daughters and are still married to this day.
The Favres met at age 14, with Deanna first becoming pregnant at 19.
In college, the quarterback “had become a loud, rough party animal” with a mean side, wrote his wife.
Favre also had troubles with painkiller addiction during his playing career.
“He was horribly addicted to painkillers, partly as a result of all the injuries he played with. We got through that. He went to the Menninger Clinic and got help. We went through counseling together, and he was once again the best friend I’d ever had — and by now my husband.”
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The couple had broken up a few times over the years, always reuniting in the end.
“There were times when we were broken up and we were seeing other people, but we still talked,” Deanna told The Journal Times. “I always knew if the relationship didn’t work out, we could always be friends.”
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