Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd have offered a rare glimpse into the beginning of their relationship, describing a connection that developed while the two were playing together at UConn.
The comments come in Apple TV’s new three-part documentary series, The Dynasty: UConn Huskies, which follows the powerhouse programme and its legendary coach, Geno Auriemma. Alongside the story of UConn’s run to the 2025 NCAA championship, the documentary gives Bueckers and Fudd an opportunity to talk about a part of their lives they have generally kept away from the spotlight.
Fudd joined UConn during Bueckers’ sophomore season, and Bueckers said the two clicked almost immediately.
“Azzi ended up joining the team my sophomore year,” Bueckers says in the documentary. “It kinda just meshed as soon as we met. She’s sweet, she’s genuine, she has a huge, caring heart.”
There was, Bueckers admitted, something beyond friendship from the beginning.
“We kind of felt a spark a little bit different than what would just be considered a normal friendship,” she said.
For Bueckers, Fudd also became someone she could lean on during the pressure cooker of a UConn season, describing her as a person she could “confide in” who understood what she was going through.
Fudd, meanwhile, was clear about the distinction the couple made between keeping their relationship private and hiding it.
“Paige and I are a couple, and everyone close to us that was important knew, but it was kind of one of those things… it’s just, it’s private. Not a secret, but it’s private,” Fudd said in the documentary.
Their relationship unfolded against a particularly demanding period for Bueckers, who spent five seasons at UConn and eventually led the Huskies to the national championship in 2025. Auriemma believed her biggest challenge was not physical but leadership.
“For Paige, as the team leader, there was never any question, physically about what she could do. It was always, where is she mentally?” Auriemma said.
Bueckers acknowledged that finding her own approach to leadership had been one of the defining challenges of her college career.
“I think finding my own unique way of leading was a challenge,” she said.
After winning the NCAA title, Bueckers was selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Fudd followed a year later, joining Bueckers in Dallas after being selected with the top pick in the 2026 draft.
The attention surrounding their relationship has followed them into the professional game, although Bueckers has made it clear that there are limits to what she intends to share.
After Fudd was drafted, Bueckers asked the media to respect their privacy.
“Quite frankly,” she said at the time, “I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own, and what we choose to share is completely up to us.”
That position has not changed. Bueckers has stressed that the two have always kept their professional lives separate from their relationship and have never allowed what happens away from the court to affect their basketball.
“And that’s what we’ll continue to do,” she said.
For once, the documentary gives viewers a little more of the story. But Bueckers and Fudd are still keeping the important parts for themselves.
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Last modified: August 19, 2026
