Michael Phelps appears to have a new girlfriend, and the young lady is also a huge Baltimore Ravens fan.
Phelps’ dating life has been a topic of speculation for years. Ever since breaking up with ex-girlfriend Megan Rossee last year, there have been a lot of questions about whom the Olympic hero is dating. We think we have the answer.
[Related: Michael Phelps and girlfriend Win McMurry at the ESPYs]
In case you’re new to the story, Phelps went public with Rossee, a model, during the London Olympics. The two had been dating for about five months as of last August, but they reportedly had broken up as of December.
Then in February, a girl named Sarah Herndon divulged her story of hooking up with Phelps in what seemed like an attempt to gain publicity. She says he invited her to attend the Super Bowl with him, but she turned him down because of a prior engagement. It looks like that’s where she lost him to his new girl.
So here’s the story.
Phelps’ new girl is named Ami — her Facebook profile says her name is Ami Desai. Based on pictures from her Facebook and Instagram profiles, she is a huge Ravens fan, just like Phelps. She tailgated in Ravens gear for home games and road games last season, including a Nov. 25 game at San Diego. She seems to be a big Baltimore sports fan in general because pictures also show her in Orioles gear cheering on the O’s with her friends.
Ami’s Instagram account was pretty quiet most of last year and didn’t really pick up until she traveled to the Super Bowl with some friends to watch her favorite team play. That appears to be when she met Phelps, because that’s when he first appears on her Instagram feed, and vice versa.
The first photo of them appears to be taken inside a casino in New Orleans. Phelps may have connected with Ami and invited her to watch the big game from a luxury box; a photo appears to show her inside a luxury box for the game.
The two must have hit it off, because Phelps shared several photos on Instagram of the two of them together, including them appearing to celebrate the Ravens’ win.
Things began to heat up after that.
Within weeks, there were pictures taken from several different cities of the two of them together. There’s one with his arm around her posted on Feb. 24. Another photo from March 2 shows them hanging out at a Downtown Baltimore restaurant. A photo on March 6 shows them together in New York City. A few weeks later, she shared pictures of them in Cabo. Not long after that, she was sharing pictures of them in Las Vegas, hanging at places like 1 Oak and N9ne Steakhouse. Even Phelps shared pictures of them together in Las Vegas late in March.
Now it could be that the two suddenly developed a close friendship, but there seems to be too many photos of them being intimate for this not to be something. Plus, there was the one big message Ami sent Thursday.
She shared pictures of her cuddling with her dog, and captioned it: “Champ was a great cuddlebug in lieu of the bf!”
It seems pretty obvious that the two are dating. Phelps has been openly sharing pictures of Ami on his Instagram account in recent weeks. The first pictures he shared of them together came at the Super Bowl. After that, he shared one on March 24, another the next day, and two more on March 29, including this one:
Phelps appears to have found a hometown girl who shares many of his interests. You can’t say they don’t look great together as a couple.
Curious about Phelps’ previous girls? Click on the pics below for the stories.
