Surfing legend Kelly Slater, 52, and girlfriend Kalani Miller, 36, reveal they are expecting their first child after 16 years together
Surfing icon Kelly Slater and his longtime girlfriend Kalani Miller are expecting their first child, they revealed on Tuesday.
The 52-year-old athlete and the 36-year-old model and businesswoman shared their happy news in an Instagram video that revealed her burgeoning baby bump.
The new child will be the first the couple – who have been together for 16 years – will share, although Kelly also welcomed a daughter from a previous relationship in 1996.
The couple’s black-and-white video on social media featured stunning slow-motion footage of the two strolling together on a sun-drenched beach as Kelly wrapped one of his muscular arms around his lover.
Kelly – who hung out with Avengers star Chris Hemsworth in Perth last year – went shirtless with a swimsuit, while Kalani was decked out in a sleek black bikini that put her stomach on full display.
Surfing icon Kelly Slater and his longtime girlfriend Kalani Miller are expecting their first child, they revealed on Tuesday
The 52-year-old athlete and the 36-year-old model and businesswoman shared their happy news in an Instagram video revealing her burgeoning baby bump
The clip, which was soundtracked by Ben Harper’s acoustic performance on The Three Of Us, featured close-ups of Kalani’s baby bump, as well as a sweet scene of the lovebirds hugging.
The images conveyed the story well enough, and the couple simply captioned their video with a white heart emoji.
The two were flooded with congratulations in the comments, including some sweet messages from other surfers and colleagues of Kelly’s.
“Huge congratulations,” wrote Mick Fanning, while Ben Thomson joked: “That baby is going to shred.”
Filipe Toledo said: ‘God bless! I’m happy for you.’
Nathan Florence himself added “congratulations,” and Kai Lenny responded with a praising hands emoji and a black heart.
This is the first time Kelly has expanded his family, as he and his ex Tamara Mitchell welcomed their daughter Taylor Slater-Kelleher in 1996.
Kelly and Kalani’s romance dates back 16 years, but the couple met two years before they started dating at a surfing fair in San Diego in 2006.
The two have resisted tying the knot, and they appear to have no plans to change that in the near future, although Kalani admitted that the professional surfer her ‘ride or die’ during a 2009 interview with Graham Bensinger.
The couple’s black-and-white video on social media featured stunning slow-motion footage of the two strolling together on a sun-drenched beach as Kelly wrapped one of his muscular arms around his lover.
The two were flooded with congratulations in the comments, including some sweet messages from other surfers and colleagues of Kelly’s
Kelly and his ex Tamara Mitchell share their daughter Taylor Slater-Kelleher, whom they welcomed in 1996; Kelly and Taylor are pictured with Chris Hemsworth in Malibu in 2015
Kelly and Kalani’s romance goes back sixteen years, but the couple met two years before they started dating at a surfing fair in San Diego in 2006; seen in 2022 in LA
She also delved into her first meeting with Kelly.
“At the time, me and my sisters worked for Roxy, Quicksilver’s female counterpart. And he was at the Quicksilver booth and he was in town for the trestles competition,” she explained.
She noted how strange it was that Kelly had been working with Quicksilver for over twenty years at that point, and that she had been with the company “for years and years,” but they had “never crossed paths, never saw each other [at] something.’
‘It was funny [how] so far we see each other,” she explained. ‘I remember exactly when I saw him for the first time and as if time really stopped.’
At the time, she was excited to possibly expand her family with Kelly.
“Hopefully,” she said of the prospect of welcoming a child or two to the surfer, though she said their upbringing in small families made her want something similar for herself.
‘I come from a family of four. He comes from a family of three. Now when I see people traveling with four children, I can’t imagine my family or anyone else doing that,” she admitted. ‘It’s crazy. I don’t know, maybe two or three.’
When asked if Kelly would consider retiring if they had a child, she said it was a “maybe.”
“I don’t know, because it would be interesting to see how he tries to balance both of those things and whatever, where he has to put his competitive nature aside and put a baby first,” Kalani said .
Slater has thought about possible retirement several times over the years, but he seemed to give the idea more thought during a post-race interview in February at the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach in Oahu, Hawaii.
Kalani previously said during a 2019 interview that she hoped to have one or two children
She wasn’t sure if Kelly would continue surfing competitively with a child, and he has thought several times over the years about possibly retiring now that his winning streak has dried up; seen in September in LA
“I doubt the competition to be honest,” he said Surfer.
“My confidence isn’t super high,” he added, before noting that he hadn’t been surfing as much as normal in recent weeks.
He said last year People that he thinks ‘a lot’ about his retirement.
‘It is a reality, because for me it is not far away. My competitive flame burns low, but can be fanned at times,” he said.