All About Trinity Rodman's Famous Parents, Dennis Rodman and Michelle Moyer

Trinity Rodman may be headed to the Olympics, but she is no stranger to fame as the daughter of Dennis Rodman and Michelle Moyer.

Dennis met his third wife, Michelle, in 1999. The couple got married in 2003, but Michelle filed for divorce in 2004. In the following years, Dennis and Michelle attempted to reconcile, but the couple’s marriage was officially dissolved in 2012. Prior to their nuptials, they welcomed two children: son Dennis "DJ" Jr. in 2001 and daughter Trinity in 2002.

As the daughter of a retired basketball star, Trinity has managed to pave her own path as an athlete. In January 2021, she joined the National Women's Soccer League whenthe Washington Spiritselected heras the second overall pick.

Despite being the daughter of an NBA Hall of Famer, Trinity told PEOPLE in March 2023 that she doesn’t often get compared to her father.

"I think maybe when I was younger, a lot of people had this expectation that everything was handed to me, but in terms of actually on the field, I don't think I struggled that much with that, just because we do play different sports and I don't think anybody had the performance expectations in a sense,” she explained.

Here’s everything to know about Trinity Rodman’s parents, Dennis Rodman and Michelle Moyer.

Dennis is best known for his time as a professional basketball player in the NBA. He was a power forward and small forward and began his career on the Detroit Pistons where he played from 1986 to 1993. He spent several seasons on the San Antonio Spurs from 1993 to 1995 before he was traded to the Chicago Bulls where he remained from 1995 to 1998. In his final years in the NBA he played for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999 and the Dallas Mavericks in 2000.

During his career in the NBA, Rodman won five championship rings, including in 1989 and 1990 with the Pistons and 1996, 1997 and 1998 with the Bulls.

The former NBA star took a years-long break from basketball before he joined the American Basketball Association in 2003, where he played for several teams. He also played for the National Professional Basketball League in Mexico briefly in 2004 and the British Basketball League in 2006.

Often revered as one of the best rebounders in the history of the NBA, Dennis was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 shortly after the Pistons retired his jersey. Dennis was also included on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in October 2021.

Dennis and his ex-wife, Michelle, had a tumultuous relationship. The former couple met in 1999 and welcomed two children in 2001 and 2002 before tying the knot in 2003. At the time of their nuptials, Dennis told the Los Angeles Times that they lived two miles apart in Newport Beach, explaining, “We won’t live together. I like it like that. She and the kids come over on weekends.”

Michelle filed for divorce when Trinity was 2 years old, telling ESPN in June 2022 that she was inspired to make a life change after she got into a motorcycle accident, referring to it as a “wake-up call.”

"I'm blessed to be alive. But I knew that I couldn't take it anymore,” she explained. “I needed to be there for my kids. I decided to divorce and be done with the Dennis stuff. That was it for me."

After Michelle filed for divorce in 2004, she and Dennis briefly reconciled, though their marriage was eventually dissolved in 2012.

During the course of their relationship, Dennis and Michelle welcomed two children together: son Dennis “DJ” Jr. and daughter Trinity. Dennis is also father to daughter Alexis, who he shares with his first wife Annie Bakes. Michelle also has a daughter, Teyana Lima, from a previous marriage.

Trinity and DJ both followed in their father’s footsteps and became athletes. Trinity started playing soccer when she was a kid and was part of club soccer teams before playing in high school. She was committed to playing soccer at Washington State University, but the season got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic before she got to play in a match. By age 18, she had been drafted to the NWSL and eventually made the United States women's national soccer team. She will make her Olympic debut at the2024 Paris Olympics.

DJ pursued basketball like Dennis. He played basketball for the Washington State Cougars before transferring to the University of Southern California in May 2023.

Dennis and Michelle's tumultuous relationship as a couple led to Michelle raising their two children as a single mother. After she initially split with Dennis, she told The Spokesman-Review in January 2023 that due to a lack of financial support from her ex, the family of four – including her daughter Teyana – “went from house to house” for nearly a decade “because we’d get evicted.”

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in June 2023, Trinity called her mom “amazing.”

“I mean firstly just as a human, she’s raised me, my brother and my sister to be the best people we can be,” she said, before sharing that her mom was an athlete as well and ran track in high school. “I definitely got my sprinting, my acceleration from her.”

Trinity told the San Francisco Chronicle in July 2023 that she inherited just about “everything” from her mom, explaining. “She has embedded in my brain that, at the end of the day, family is always going to be there.”

Reflecting on her childhood with ESPN in 2023, Trinity said that people often thought that when she was growing up, she had a tight bond with her dad, but that wasn’t the case. She explained, “Living in Newport Beach, my dad was a little bit around, but was still in the party NBA phase. He wasn’t in our lives and I was with my mom and we were living separately but we were still seeing him.”

Michelle said there was a common misconception of their family that because of their dad, they were wealthy when in reality, they struggled as a family unit.

Over the years, Trinity has remained candid about the lack of relationship -

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she has with her father.

In November 2021, Dennis surprised her at a playoff game. Trinity shared on social media that the match “was an extremely emotional one” and that “after years,” her dad finally surprised her during one of the biggest games in her soccer career.

“I was shocked, overwhelmed, happy, sad, everything,” she wrote in part. “My dad doesn’t play a big role in my life at all and most people don’t know that, we don’t see eye to eye on many things. I go months if not years without his presence or communication.”

Trinity said that being in the spotlight has been “hard” for both her and her father, adding, ”We don’t have the best relationship, but at the end of the day he’s human I’m human ... he’s my dad, and I’m his little girl that will never change."

Seven months after the game, Trinity recalled the surprise moment to ESPN, sharing, “In the moment, I remember thinking, ‘Is this the start? Is this his effort to start coming to more games?’ ... It was amazing to see him and hear him cheer me on on the sideline and knowing the other half of my parents was proud of me.”

In June 2023, Trinity shared more about her relationship with her father with The Wall Street Journal, explaining, “I have nothing, honestly, bad to say about him. He goes through so much and through his career, he’s had a very hard time.”

“It’s weird being a daughter saying that about a dad. You’d think it would be the opposite way,” she added. “But I think I have an understanding of kind of what he’s been going through. And right now, our relationship is not really there. But at the same time, I think we’re both in a place where it’s OK.”

Despite her difficult relationship with her father, Trinity told The Guardian in April 2021 that her mom was her “role model.” In the interview with the outlet, Trinity was asked about which questions she doesn’t get very often and she got candid with her response.

She shared that because she has a famous father, nobody asks her about her mom “because obviously she’s not an NBA star,” adding that she wanted people to know “that my mom’s been my support system in everything in life and she’s my best friend and my rock.”

“I don’t think people know how close we are and, even though she wasn’t in the NBA, she has an extremely competitive and driven mindset, and she’s an extremely strong woman,” she added. “She’s my role model.”

Dennis opened up about his role as a father during his induction speech at the Basketball Hall of Fame. At the time, he acknowledged that Michelle had “put up with a lot of crap” from him, adding, “I haven’t been a great father, I haven’t been a great husband. I can’t lie about that.”

“But she’s tolerated everything from me for 11 years and she’s raised three beautiful kids,” he said. “She’s been a mother and a father and I’ve been very much appreciative of what she’s done.”

Dennis then shared his “one regret” with the crowd, revealing, “I wish I was a better father.”

In a September 2019 interview with ESPN, Dennis said it was “hard” for him to be a good dad and to “break out of that cycle” after experiencing a troubled childhood himself.

“I think it’s one of those things where I never had anyone to ever do that for me and I think sometimes, ‘Why am I doing it for somebody else?’ “ he explained.

He shared that it was hard for him to “gravitate to people that are close” to him, explaining, “It’s difficult even though inside I love them and it hurts me when my kids say ‘It’s okay dad, you can hug us, you can touch us.’ It’s hard because it just burns me up and it hurts me so much.”

Though Trinity doesn’t have a close relationship with her father, she draws inspiration from his career as a professional athlete in her own life. She told reporters in July 2023 that she watched her dad play “a lot more than people really know,” according to The Washington Post.

“Even if he wasn’t the first guy under the basket and other players were way bigger, way taller, he was going to get the rebound,” she added. “It was timing. It wasn’t just patience. It was body movement. It was positioning. It was everything. He was so intelligent.”

She also shared her admiration for his “mentality,” explaining, “It doesn’t even matter what he was doing the night before, what he was doing the morning of; he was there every single game.”

Trinity acknowledged in a June 2022 interview with ESPN that she saw the similarities between her dad and her athleticism.

"I see so many similarities in mine and my dad's game. Just that die-hard mentality and not giving up no matter what the scoreboard is, no matter what position you're in," Trinity said.

Raised primarily by her mother, Trinity has not had much of a relationship with her father during her life. Despite not being close with her dad, Trinity told ESPN in July 2023 that while she looked at her relationship with him “so negatively,” there was plenty to thank him for too, including for “teaching me to move forward with my life.”

“Thank you for teaching me the mistakes that could be made in the spotlight,” she added. “I think it’s hard to see the downfalls that come with it along with him not being in my life, but he’s my dad and I love him.”

She also acknowledged their shared last name, though she has a different perspective on how she looks at the name Rodman.

“I love to have my last name and when I say Rodman, it’s not my dad’s name – it’s my name,” she explained. “It’s my brother’s name. It’s my family’s name. It’s ultimately the story that got me to where I am today and I love that.”

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