Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd Open Up About How Their Relationship Began in New UConn Documentary

Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers on Dec. 11, 2022 in Maryland.

The Dallas Wings stars discuss their relationship in Apple TV’s new three-part documentary series, The Dynasty: UConn Huskies, which explores the legendary women’s basketball program, head coach Geno Auriemma and the team’s journey to the 2025 NCAA championship.

While much of the documentary focuses on basketball, pressure, leadership and UConn’s championship run, Bueckers, 24, and Fudd, 23, also address an intensely personal part of their time together in Storrs, Connecticut.

“Paige and I are a couple,” Fudd says in the documentary, while emphasizing that their relationship was never intended to be something they needed to publicly explain.

For the two basketball stars, the distinction was simple: their romance was private, not secret.

Paige Says There Was an Immediate Connection

Bueckers arrived at UConn before Fudd, and she recalled how naturally their connection developed when Fudd joined the Huskies during Bueckers’ sophomore year.

“Azzi ended up joining the team my sophomore year,” Bueckers explains in the series.

According to Bueckers, the two quickly became comfortable around each other.

“It kinda just meshed as soon as we met,” she says.

Bueckers described Fudd as someone whose personality immediately stood out to her.

“She’s sweet, she’s genuine, she has a huge, caring heart,” she said.

Their relationship initially grew through the close friendship that often forms between teammates spending enormous amounts of time together, particularly within a demanding college basketball program such as UConn.

But eventually, Bueckers realized that something about her connection with Fudd felt different.

“We kind of felt a spark a little bit different than what would just be considered a normal friendship,” she explained.

That connection became especially important as Bueckers navigated the enormous expectations that followed her throughout her college career.

Azzi Became Someone Paige Could Confide In

Bueckers entered UConn as one of the most highly anticipated young basketball players in the country.

With that talent came intense scrutiny.

Every performance, injury, leadership decision and postseason result generated attention, and Bueckers said Fudd became someone who understood what she was experiencing.

She described Fudd as a person she could “confide in” during difficult periods because Fudd understood the realities of playing at the highest level of college basketball.

Their relationship therefore developed not only through attraction but also through shared experiences.

Both understood the pressure associated with UConn basketball, where competing for national championships is effectively an expectation rather than simply an ambition.

For Fudd, keeping the relationship largely outside the public spotlight was intentional.

“Paige and I are a couple, and everyone close to us that was important knew,” Fudd says in the documentary’s third episode.

However, she emphasized that knowing about their relationship was different from making it public.

“It was kind of one of those things… it’s just, it’s private. Not a secret, but it’s private,” she explained.

Their Relationship Became Important During a Difficult UConn Season

Fudd discusses their relationship while recounting some of the tension Bueckers experienced with longtime UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.

During challenging moments in the season, Fudd said she and Bueckers regularly talked about what was happening.

“We had conversations about, like, everything that was going on,” Fudd recalls.

She also suggested that Bueckers sometimes felt a disproportionate amount of responsibility whenever things went wrong.

“When things weren’t going right, it was usually all Paige’s fault,” Fudd says.

According to Fudd, Bueckers expressed frustration because she had returned to UConn for a fifth season believing the team would finally be in a position where things felt settled.

Fudd recalled Bueckers telling her, “I came back for my fifth year because I thought we were gonna have things figured out and it was gonna be fun.”

Instead, Bueckers continued facing significant expectations as both UConn’s biggest star and one of its most important leaders.

Geno Auriemma Wanted More From Bueckers as a Leader

Auriemma, 72, also discusses Bueckers’ development throughout the documentary.

He said there was never much uncertainty about her physical basketball ability.

“For Paige, as the team leader, there was never any question, physically about what she could do,” Auriemma says.

The bigger issue, according to the Hall of Fame coach, involved Bueckers’ mentality and how she handled the responsibility of leading teammates.

“It was always, where is she mentally?” he explains.

Auriemma believed one of Bueckers’ greatest strengths — her loyalty toward teammates — could sometimes complicate her role as a leader.

“She had this incredible sense of loyalty,” he says. “She loved her teammates.”

But in Auriemma’s view, being supportive also required knowing when to demand more.

“If you’re loyal, that doesn’t preclude you from also being hard on them and being demanding of them,” he explains.

Bueckers acknowledged that leadership was something she had to learn throughout her five seasons at UConn.

Finding her “own unique way of leading,” she says, became one of the major challenges of her college career.

Their UConn Journey Ended with a National Championship

Despite injuries, pressure and difficult moments, Bueckers’ final season at UConn ultimately ended the way she had hoped.

In April 2025, the Huskies captured the NCAA championship, giving Bueckers the first and only national title of her college career.

The victory represented the culmination of five years filled with enormous expectations and significant adversity.

Just days later, her basketball career entered another chapter.

Bueckers was selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA Draft.

Fudd remained at UConn for another season before following an almost remarkably similar path.

One year later, she was also selected with the top overall pick in the WNBA Draft.

Her destination made the moment even more notable: Dallas.

That meant Bueckers and Fudd, after playing together at UConn and developing their relationship there, became teammates once again with the Wings.

Bueckers Has Asked Fans and Media to Respect Their Privacy

Their reunion in Dallas naturally generated additional public interest in their relationship.

Shortly after Fudd was drafted, Bueckers addressed questions about their personal lives directly.

Her message was clear.

“Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own,” Bueckers said.

She added that she and Fudd should be able to decide what information they want to make public.

“What we choose to share is completely up to us,” she explained.

Bueckers also stressed that their romantic relationship has never interfered with their behavior as professional basketball players.

“Me and Azzi have always been the most professional; we’ve always conducted ourselves as such,” she said.

She added that neither has allowed events away from basketball to influence what happens during games or practices.

“We’ve never let anything that happens off the court carry onto the court,” Bueckers explained. “And that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd on April 4, 2025 in Tampa, FL.

A Rare Look at a Relationship They Chose to Keep Private

That history makes their comments in The Dynasty: UConn Huskies particularly notable.

Bueckers and Fudd have generally avoided offering extensive public explanations about their romance, even as interest in their relationship has increased alongside their basketball careers.

The documentary does not appear to change that broader philosophy.

Instead, their comments provide limited but meaningful context about how their bond developed.

They met as UConn teammates. Their personalities immediately connected. Friendship gradually became something deeper, and Fudd became an important source of support while Bueckers dealt with the pressure of leading one of college basketball’s most scrutinized programs.

Those closest to them knew they were together, Fudd says, but the couple saw no reason to turn the relationship into a public spectacle.

Now they find themselves beginning another extraordinary chapter together.

After sharing the court at UConn, winning the 2025 national championship and navigating the pressures surrounding two elite basketball careers, Bueckers and Fudd are teammates once again with the Dallas Wings.

And while they are revealing slightly more about how their relationship began, their position remains consistent: fans may see them competing side-by-side on the court, but what they choose to share about their lives together away from basketball remains entirely their decision.