Ashton Meem is an American Advertising Operations Assistant for American Family Insurance, and became popular when she both married and divorced National Football League (NFL) quarterback Russell Wilson.
Early Life and Family
Ashton is of English-Irish descent, and was born on 6 September 1987, in Richmond, Virginia, USA, so her zodiac sign is Virgo, and her birthstone is Sapphire. She was an only daughter to parents Lang and Molly Gayle Meem. While growing up, she was always encouraged by her parents to participate in school sports and other extracurricular activities – her parents being alumni of her high school had been supporting the school long before they had Ashton.
They played a more active role whenever she was involved, such as her mother coaching the field hockey and lacrosse teams for about ten years. They even dedicated some of their time running most of St. Catherine High School swim meets. Even after Ashton left the school to pursue her college education, both Lang and Molly continued to actively participate in the school’s yearly fundraising event, Daisy Days, for which their efforts were recognized by the school on Athletics Night, with the Adelaide Rawles Flippen ’30 Outstanding Service Award.
Education
She matriculated from St. Catherine’s High School in 2006, and attended the University of Georgia for three years taking up Advertising. Ashton transferred to North Carolina State University, from where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications in 2010.
Career
First Step
Ashton had a brief stint with Lewis Media Partners, as Secretary and Media Marketing Intern for three months from June to August of 2008. After a year, she had another internship with McKinney in Durham, North Carolina, and was assigned to the Art Buying and Print Production Department, which lasted for four months from June to September of 2009.
Further success
After college, she became an Account Executive for Morton Consulting LLC, a provider of Information Technology staffing services in Richmond, Virginia in 2010. Currently, she is reportedly doing well as an Advertising Operations Assistant for American Family Insurance, where she’s worked since 2011.
Personal Life
Ashton was unknown except to her family and friends until she married high school sweetheart Russell Wilson in January of 2012. He had a beautifully romantic proposal using their dog to pop the question, by making the dog wear a brand new rhinestone collar – it happened inside a Presidential Suite Umstead Hotel and Spa. She said in an interview that on the dog tag it says, ‘Hey Mom, Dad has a question he wants to ask you.’ Russell was already on bended knee with roses scattered all over the floor when she turned. Her favorite champagne and chocolates were on the dining table. Her parents were outside too, with their dog. It was a successful proposal.
The wedding was attended by 300 people and took place at the Country Club of Virginia, with a backdrop of twenty full-sized trees and amazing lighting.
It was a well-planned event that awed the guests by the kind of celebration that they witnessed and also why Ashton, who organized every single detail of her wedding, considered having a career as a wedding planner.
However, after just two years in April of 2014, Russell filed for divorce. People were stunned by it, particularly since they underwent a grueling long-distance relationship during college. It became easier to handle only after she decided to transfer to the University of Wisconsin to be with him, after spending three years at the University of Georgia. No official reason was given to the public except for his statement that was released through his PR team, ‘I’ve made the difficult decision to file for divorce. Ashton and I respectfully ask for prayers, understanding, and privacy during this difficult time.’ Both sides were pretty quiet after it was announced. Currently she is single, and there is no information about her dating anyone.
Who is Russell Wilson?
Russell Carrington Wilson of African-European descent, was born on 29 November 1988, in Cincinnati to parents Harrison Benjamin Wilson III, a lawyer, and Tammy Turner, a legal nurse consultant. His parents raised him and his siblings, an older brother, Harrison Wilson IV, and younger sister Anna, in Richmond, Virginia. In 2006, he matriculated from Collegiate School where he served as senior class president, and in May of 2010 he graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication. During the football season of the same year, he took graduate-level business courses. In 2011, he transferred to the University of Wisconsin, and played for the Wisconsin Badgers football team.
He ended both his high school and college football career with impressive stats and accolades, leading his teams to numerous victories, and winning individual awards.
He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2012 as the 75th overall pick. Some football analysts thought that if Russell was a little taller, he would have been the number one pick, but he proved them all wrong, as his height wasn’t a deterrent to his path to becoming one of the most prolific football players in the world. He led his team to win the Super Bowl XLVIII, the shortest quarterback and just the second black starting quarterback to win it.
With numerous victories and having broken franchise records, his hard work paid off. In 2019, he became the highest-paid player in NFL after signing a $140 million four-year contract with the Seahawks. Russell is currently married to R&B singer, Ciara, and has a daughter, Sienna Princess Wilson, who was born on 28 April 2017.
Interesting Rumors and Facts
- The fans and media were getting nosy and wouldn’t let the peaceful divorce go just like that. Rumors started to go around online and the netizens were blaming Ashton for the fallout, alleging that she cheated on him with Seattle Seahawks teammate Golden Tate. No one released any statement to refute the rumors, and both parties decided to just let the rumor die a natural death. However, when Golden Tate left the Seattle Seahawks, he cleared things out with the media and denied all the allegations, saying that his wife is still close friends with Ashton. There was no evidence to the contrary.
- Before the scandal, Ashton was active on popular social media apps such as Instagram and Twitter. However, due to the nasty comments on her posts, she decided to hibernate from her accounts, and her last Instagram post was on 15 May 2017. There is no information about her opening new accounts.
- She never openly talked about the cheating rumor, but there was one post that fans thought was a direct message to her bashers. A photo with a text, ‘If you believe everything you read. Better not read’ with a caption, ‘Good Day.’
- When Russell posted on Instagram about his proposal to Ciara showing the engagement ring that he gave her, Ashton’s Twitter profile photo was changed to her old engagement ring that was given by Russell. No one knew the reason why but some experts claimed that while Ashton’s 8-carat diamond was bigger, Ciara’s 5-carat was of higher clarity.
Appearance
She is 5ft 11ins (1.80m) tall, and weighs around 116lbs (53kgs). She is Caucasian with long blonde hair and light brown eyes.
Net Worth
Ashton has a stable career as Advertising Operations Assistant with a successful insurance company for nine years now. Sources estimated her net worth to be over $4 million as of early 2020 from her earnings. She also reportedly received a decent amount of money after the divorce. Being an only daughter and having no kids, with that amount of money, she could afford a luxurious lifestyle.