Advanced SearchJessica Olsson is the Swedish wife of German retired professional basketball player Dirk Werner Nowitzki, who was once affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A native of the city of Gävle, Olsson grew up alongside her twin younger brothers, Marcus and Martin Olsson, both of whom are footballers. She met Nowitzki at a charity event in February 2010 and they exchanged wedding vows two years later, in July 2012. They have three children together and presently reside in Dallas. At the time of her marriage, she was employed as an associate director of the Goss-Michael Foundation art gallery in Dallas.
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Dirk NowitzkiElin NordegrenEija SkarsgårdAnna EbersteinChildhood & Early LifeJessica Olsson was born in 1980 or 1981 in Gävle, Sweden to a Swedish father and a Kenyan mother. Her twin younger siblings, Marcus and Martin Olsson, were born on May 17, 1988. Both of them have grown up to become professional footballers. A midfielder and left back, Marcus is currently associated with Derby County, an English club that participates in the EFL Championship. He has represented Sweden in two exhibition matches. As a result, he can still represent Kenya if he wishes to do so. Martin, who is also a left back, is affiliated with Championship club Swansea City and has also represented Sweden at the national level.Olsson and her siblings grew up in a loving household. Their parents encouraged them to pursue their passions. While her brothers spent hours in the football field every day, she developed a deep interest in art. She was also curious about her background, both Swedish and Kenyan.Continue Reading BelowCareerWhen Olsson got married to Nowitzki, she was employed at Goss-Michael Foundation art gallery in Dallas as an associate director. It is not known whether she still continues to be affiliated with the organization. She regularly attends various charity and fundraising events.Relationship with Dirk NowitzkiIn February 2010, Jessica Olsson and Nowitzki became acquainted at a charity event hosted in favour of the Sports for Education and Economic Development (SEED) Project. It did not take long for a relationship to develop between the two. Hailing from an athletic family, Nowitzki has always been tall. Initially, he took up handball and tennis before shifting his attention to basketball. As a professional basketball player, he played for the German club DJK Würzburg from 1994 to 1998. Despite the fact that DJK was a club competing in Germany's 2nd-tier level league, Nowitzki soon garnered widespread attention for his incredible progress as a player. He joined the Dallas Mavericks in 1998 and after a difficult first season, went on to establish himself as one of the most prominent basketball players of today. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time. With the Mavericks, he made 15 NBA Playoffs appearances and won the 2011 NBA Championship. He was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player accolade in 2007, and the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player accolade in 2011. Furthermore, Nowitzki played a pivotal role in the German national team’s bronze-medal-winning campaign in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and silver-medal-winning campaign in EuroBasket 2005.The first time Olsson and Nowitzki appeared in public together was on the red carpet of the ESPYS Awards on July 13, 2011. They became engaged on the Valentine’s Day in 2012, and got legally married in front of State District Judge Craig Smith on July 20, 2012, in their Dallas home. They subsequently went to the Caribbean for their honeymoon. They held a private wedding ceremony there on August 8, 2012, with close friends and family members as attendees.In July 2012, the couple celebrated each other’s backgrounds by going through both traditional German and Kenyan wedding ceremonies in the respective countries. In Kenya, they held a Kikuyu wedding, where the entire community is told about the engagement, and the families of both the bride and the groom get together to discuss ruracio (dowry). According to Kenyan tradition, it is the groom who pays the dowry to the family of the bride. In Nowitzki’s case, it was largely symbolic. He handed over a few Kenyan shillings to Olsson’s family. The wedding was held at Nanyuki, the hometown of Olsson’s mother. Olsson herself did not grow up in Kenya. As a result, the ceremony was a novel experience for her as well. She was dressed in a traditional Kikuyu garment while the groom wore a dark brown traditional outfit with orange hues.Olsson gave birth to their oldest child, a daughter whom they named Malaika, in July 2013. Their son, Max, was born on March 24, 2015. On November 11, 2016, the couple welcomed their younger son Morris into the world. Olsson and Nowitzki have no desire to raise their children only in Dallas. They want them to experience different cultures and different languages, so when they become adults, they are able to make educated decisions on where they would reside and what their professions would be.
Dylan Hughes 
