NBA star Stephen Curry’s little sister Sydel Curry-Lee is forging her own path.
The youngest of three siblings, Sydel was born in 1994 into a basketball family. Her father, Dell Curry, played in the NBA for nearly two decades, while her older brothers Stephen and Seth are both professional basketball players.
“People underestimating me is pretty much my life from the moment I started playing sports to now,” the former college volleyball player told Togethxr in 2020. When she walked around her college campus, she heard her classmates whispering, “Oh, that’s Steph Curry’s sister.”
But since graduating from Elon University in 2017, Sydel has pursued many interests, including running a lifestyle blog, launching a podcast and advocating for mental health. She is also a wife to NBA player Damion Lee and a soon-to-be mother of two.
“I feel like I’ve done a really good job at creating my own person and creating my own identity outside of my brothers,” she said.
Sydel still has the support of her big brothers though. When she told Steph and his wife Ayesha Curry that she was pregnant with her first child in 2021, the two screamed in pure excitement, as seen in a video shared by the Golden State Warriors. Both of her brothers also served as groomsmen at her 2018 wedding.
So, who is Stephen Curry’s sister? Here’s everything to know about Sydel Curry-Lee.
While Sydel didn’t follow in her family’s footsteps when it came to basketball, she did play volleyball at Elon University from 2014 to 2016. She was redshirted as a freshman due to a dislocated knee cap and started playing in 2014.
She was underestimated a lot during college, Sydel recalled, with some people even questioning her talent. “I remember one of the first things I ever heard when I was playing volleyball is, ‘You’re only here because of your family.’ “
Sydel was named the team’s MVP in 2016, the same year she was named NCCSIA First Team All-State. However, she retired from volleyball in 2017 after an injury.
“I have dedicated so much of my life, my identity, to my sport. As an athlete and a competitor, I will always want to put my sport before a lot of things,” she wrote on Facebook. “I never thought that my first grown-up decision about my future would be something so difficult.”
She graduated with a degree in psychology the same year.
Sydel is using her platform for good. She’s very open on her Instagram account and on her own blog, “A Curry Girl,” about her own struggles with mental health.
“I’ve always had a passion for mental health, not that I’ve had to deal with it on my own. I’ve always been curious about the mind and helping others but I really want, literally in a sense, to save lives,” she told Essence in 2020. “We’ve seen in the past week or so how many people have taken their lives because [they were] at a point in their life that they thought it’s never going to get better. So with my brand called A Curry Girl and the platform that I have, that’s all I want to do is just change the stigma behind [people] being not being able to speak about how you’re feeling and not being in a culture where social media is just about jokes and people not taking other people seriously.”
In May 2021, Sydel launched a podcast called Because Life, which “aims to de-stigmatize the discussion around mental health and offer first-hand advice on how we can all discuss the subject better as well as things we can do to improve our mental health,” per the podcast’s description.
Recently in March 2023, she spoke to Ferrum College about the importance of mental health. “Dusted off my speechin’ skills and spoke to @ferrum_college students today! I left feeling so encouraged by the progress that’s being made in colleges and universities by creating safe spaces for students to feel seen and heard in their mental health journeys,” she wrote on Instagram.
Sydel and her now-husband Damion Lee, who plays for the Phoenix Suns, met at a college basketball game while she was at Elon University and he was a student at Drexel University.
“He was walking up the stairs, I was sitting in the stands and we kind of made eye contact,” she told Munaluchi Bride. After exchanging DMs and going on a few dates, they officially became a couple.
As for the proposal, Sydel explained she had one requirement. “My one wish for a proposal was to have all my family in the same room when the time came. He planned it on a weekend that both of our families would be in town for different reasons.”
The pair got married on Sept. 1, 2018, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Steph’s wife Ayesha served as her matron of honor while his daughters were flower girls.
The day after the wedding Sydel shared photos on her Instagram along with a special message for her husband: “I love this man more than words can tell but now i get to live my life showing it and telling him every day! I have tons of people to thank but right now, I just need to relish in the fact that I have found my soulmate, we are now one, and I am Mrs. Lee!!!!!”
As a wedding gift, Steph gave his sister something pretty special. He had the women’s volleyball locker room at Elon University named after her.
“Just want to say congratulations on getting married this weekend, that’s a big occasion, I know it’s crazy,” Steph said in a video message. “But we also want to congratulate you on an amazing career at Elon playing volleyball, all you did for the school and the program, and wanted to give it back to you with the new locker room for Sydel Curry.”
On Nov. 26, 2021, Sydel and Lee welcomed a baby boy, Daxon Wardell-Xavier Lee.
“No words are enough to describe the bliss of having my sweet son here. We are in newborn bliss and soaking in every single moment,” she wrote on Instagram.
Ahead of Daxon’s birth, Sydel shared photos of her nursery exclusively with PEOPLE. “We want this to be his place of solace, a safe space for him to rest and feel at home,” she shared, while her husband added, “It’s a great space for us to get away from all the distractions of the outside world and focus on our baby.”
And following their baby’s arrival, the new parents opened up about keeping the spark alive in their marriage on Sydel’s podcast, calling it “very hard.”
“Someone gave us the advice to do the deed for a whole month. Like every day of the month. We got to day like 15 and we were like, no,” she shared. “I think that’s a very hard thing to do. I don’t think it happens a lot in relationships … I haven’t met anyone who has kept the spark the whole time while trying to conceive because it’s such a mental thing.”
Sydel isn’t just a basketball fan, she’s also a self-proclaimed Swiftie. She shared a photo of herself on Instagram at the first night of the Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona.
“Went for Paramore, left invested if Betty ever took James back! #erastour Hayley Williams is EVERYTHING & Taylor just did the dang thing! A 3 1/2 hour set is unreal and she didn’t miss at all! Thanks @ryanquint_ for the invite!”
On March 21, 2023, Sydel shared a video on Instagram revealing she and Lee were expecting their second child together alongside the caption, “August 2023 💖For this child we have prayed!”
A few weeks later, she shared a close-up of her bump and wrote, “What a privilege it is to see you grow. To feel you move. To imagine what who you’ll look like. Who you’ll act like. My precious little one. Take your time but we are ready for you.”
