Who Is Brett Favre’s Wife? All About Deanna Favre

Brett Favre and his wife, Deanna Favre (née Tynes), are high school sweethearts who’ve managed to stick together through thick and thin.

The former Green Bay Packers quarterback first met Deanna in 1983 when they were both 14 years old. The pair quickly hit it off and dated all through high school. After graduation, Deanna went to a nearby community college while Brett attended the University of Southern Mississippi on a football scholarship. Their relationship further developed when Deanna became pregnant at 19.

In 1989, the couple welcomed their daughter Brittany. Just two years later, Brett was drafted into the NFL, where he spent one season with the Atlanta Falcons before joining the Packers. However, things weren’t always smooth sailing between the pair.

“There were times when we were broken up and we were seeing other people, but we still talked,” Deanna said in an interview with The Journal Times. “I always knew if the relationship didn’t work out, we could always be friends.”

Eventually, though, the pair decided to give things a real shot and in 1995, Deanna moved to Wisconsin so they could live together with their daughter. The following year, the couple married and in 1999, their second daughter, Breleigh, was born.

The couple has experienced ups and downs in their marriage, from Deanna’s breast cancer battle to Brett’s Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, which he shared publicly for the first time in September 2024.

Brett was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016 and, during his speech, he took the opportunity to praise his wife, calling Deanna the “strongest and most courageous person I know.”

Now, Brett’s football career and the scandals that marred his reputation will be explored in the Netflix documentary, Untold; The Fall of Farve, which began streaming on May 20.

So who is Brett Favre’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Deanna Favre and her relationship with the former NFL star.

They met in high school

Brett and Deanna grew up in the small town of Kiln, Miss. They attended the same school throughout their entire childhood but didn’t officially meet until high school.

During his Hall of Fame induction speech, Brett detailed meeting Deanna for the first time at his older brother’s birthday party. “There was one person that caught my eye and one person only,” he recalled. “She’s as beautiful today as she was Dec. 18, 1983, in my living room.”

Although the two — who were both 14 at the time — were fairly shy, they started talking and flirting that night. “The chemistry was there right away,” Deanna told The Journal Times.

Their early courtship helped shape the foundation of their relationship. “We started dating so young,” she told the New York Daily News. “So I’ve always known that he was a good, quality person with great character.”

She was a star basketball player

Like Brett, Deanna was a gifted athlete in high school — she even went to college on a basketball scholarship.

In an article she wrote for Guideposts Magazine, Deanna said that she Brett got to know each other shooting hoops on the basketball court.

“I was just as much a jock as he was,” she wrote. “We were officially a couple, but most of what we did together was sports. We played catch on our dates and for a present he bought me a glove and a catcher’s mitt.”

They share two daughters

Deanna’s college basketball career was cut short after she became pregnant at the age of 19.

“We had no idea where our lives were going,” she told the New York Daily News, adding that she and Brett “just took it day by day.”

Brett and Deanna welcomed their daughter Brittany on Feb. 6, 1989. Over a decade later, their second daughter, Breleigh, was born on July 13, 1999.

They married in 1996

Following Brittany’s birth, the couple went through a few turbulent years. Brett was drafted into the NFL in 1991 while Deanna stayed in Mississippi taking care of their daughter. With so much time apart, their relationship became on-again, off-again for several years until they decided to take the next step.

“We just talked about it one night and said, ‘It’s time to make it or break it.’ We needed to either move in together and try to work it out, or we needed to break it off and go on with our lives,” she told The Journal Times.

In 1995, Deanna moved to Green Bay so that she and Brittany could live with Brett. Within a year, they were married.

The couple tied the knot on July 14, 1996, in a small, private ceremony at St. Agnes Catholic Church. Their daughter Brittany served as flower girl. Speaking to PEOPLE, Deanna described the wedding as “real brief, short and sweet.”

They have three grandchildren

Brett and Deanna are also grandparents, thanks to their older daughter Brittany, who is a mom to three boys: Parker Brett, Alexander “A.J.” James and Oscar.

Brittany welcomed her first child, Parker, on April 2, 2010, with her ex.

In 2013, she married her now-husband, Alex Mallion. The following year, their son A.J. was born. The couple’s younger son, Oscar, was born in 2017.

She’s a breast cancer survivor

Deanna was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 at the age of 35 and underwent a lumpectomy and chemotherapy.

In an article she wrote for Guideposts Magazine, she detailed the experience of going through chemo. Along with the pain, she struggled to cope with losing her hair, but as a show of support, Brett shaved his head.

“Going through all that adversity together brought us even closer,” she told the New York Daily News.

Following her recovery, she became an advocate and worked to help others dealing with the same thing. She started accepting speaking engagements and created the Deanna Favre Hope Foundation to raise money and awareness for breast cancer.

She also published a book, Don’t Bet Against Me, a memoir about overcoming challenges.

She introduced him at his Hall of Fame ceremony

In 2016, Brett was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The NFL star opted to have Deanna present him during the ceremony.

“Deanna is the best teammate I’ve ever had,” he said in a statement, per ESPN. “She has been by my side throughout this journey, and I’m so excited that she gets to play such an important role for me.”

According to the Hall of Fame, Deanna was only the second wife to serve as a presenter for an inductee, but for Brett, it was a no-brainer.

“Having my wife introduce me was an easy choice, considering she was there long before my first touchdown pass, long after the last,” he said during his speech.

Brett also called her a “wonderful mother,” an “exceptional athlete” and a “woman of faith.”