Strange Things About Jessie James Decker's Marriage

Jessie James Decker and her former NFL star husband, Eric Decker, are total couple goals. The retired football player and country singer got married in 2013 and have since gone on to welcome four children into the world; daughter Vivianne Rose and three sons, Eric Decker II, Forrest Bradley, and the youngest, Denver Calloway, who was born in February 2024.

The couple hasn't exactly been shy about their relationship, either. Eric and Jessie gave fans a peak behind closed doors from 2013 until 2017 during three seasons of their own reality show, "Eric & Jessie," and haven't been afraid to share personal moments on social media since the series came to an end.

The two regularly prove they're still just as in love as ever, with Jessie making it clear her husband will "never be bored" in a steamy Instagram video posted in April 2021. Despite the bold show of affection, which proves the couple is at ease with each other, there are some strange things fans may not know about Eric and Jessie's marriage.

Jessie James Decker confirmed in January 2021 that she and husband Eric Decker didn't know if they'd be adding a fourth to their brood of three children but said she felt like tears after he booked a vasectomy. Jessie told Us Weekly the retired football player had scheduled the surgery, but she wasn't so sure if she wanted him to go through with it.

"I'm going to be real with you, he has a doctor's appointment to go be done with it, to get snipped," the singer revealed. "I don't know how I feel about it. I keep thinking, 'He's going to wake up that morning to go to the hospital and I'm just going to cry.'"

Jessie undoubtedly didn't want Eric to "make it so permanent," but when the couple learned they were expecting their fourth child, Denver Calloway Decker, the news came as a shocker. The singer told People in a January 2024 interview, "It was a huge surprise, a huge shock. Not to get too personal, I'm very on top of when and how things are going, and somehow I missed this one." The "Wanted" singer added that, after welcoming their fourth child, the couple didn't plan to have any more children in the future, and Eric eventually received a vasectomy in May 2024.

Jessie James Decker had made it clear that any kind of bad behavior from her husband won't be tolerated — especially when it comes to cheating. In December 2016, she posted a tongue in cheek photo to her Instagram account that showed her chopping sausages with a very large knife. "Sometimes I like to send pictures to Eric with little reminders of what would happen if he ever cheated. Hope everyone has a good day," the TV host teased in the caption.

Plenty of fans saw the funny side of the star's upload and made it clear in the comments section. "You go girl, I told my husband the same thing," one person joked. Another quipped, "Apparently, she means business and it's pretty funny." By the looks of things, Eric's definitely not going to want to get on Jessie's bad side.

Speaking of cheating, Eric Decker actually faced rumors of infidelity in his marriage. Almost two years after Jessie James Decker's jokey sausage Instagram post, the athlete was accused of stepped out on Jessie after an X, formerly known as Twitter, user (via ET) accused him of having "hooked up with" other women. They also claimed in the September 2018 tweet that they had a friend who'd supposedly seen him "in the clubs with girls who are not Jessie."

The original tweet has since been deleted, but not before Eric saw it and hit back, denying the seemingly unfounded claims. He quoted the original message and wrote, "Sorry lady the only club I've been jammin is The Mickey Mouse Club House! (That's a kids tv show for the non parents) Make sure your 'friends' check their facts." After Jessie's sausage cutting post, we're pretty inclined to believe him.

Jessie James Decker and Eric Decker actually had a virtual relationship before they met in person and didn't get together for several weeks after they started talking. In an interview with Access Hollywood (via Bustle), they revealed their relationship technically started in the winter of 2011 when Jessie got a text from a friend that read, "'I'm having dinner with this guy I'm seeing, and this other guy just showed up, and he's stunning.'"

The friend then sent Jessie a photo of Eric and passed on a snap of Jessie to Eric in return. Both clearly liked what they saw and swapped numbers before spending about a month texting and calling one another. Jessie admitted that Eric then "invited himself" out to meet her in Nashville, though she was pretty nervous and actually ended up canceling Eric's flight. She eventually got the courage to meet face to face with the sports star, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jessie James Decker wanted to make sure she was on Eric Decker's mind during his many trips to play football at away games, but the item she chose to gift the sportsman as a sentimental present is probably not what fans would expect. In 2016, she told Us Weekly that she would actually give him pieces of her hair extensions and would hide them in his pockets before he went away.

"I don't wear [extensions] anymore because my hair finally grew out, but I used to wear the bonds and I would pull them out and put them in pockets," she explained, adding, "I just wanted him to think about me so I would put hair everywhere." As for how Eric felt about the clumps of hair, he admitted, "Right away I was so embarrassed, but then after a while I was like, 'It's Jess,' you know?" Well, that's one way to stay on his mind.

Eric Decker has often been close friends with his NFL teammates. In a 2014 press conference, Eric's former Denver Broncos teammate, Peyton Manning, revealed that they carpooled on their way to games every Sunday. Similarly, Eric and his former New England Patriots teammate, Rob Gronkowski, had a tight-knit relationship. Back in 2019, Gronkowski's long-term partner, Camille Kostek, shared pictures of themselves on vacation with the Deckers.

Despite the couple's friendship, Gronkowski is the ex-teammate who isn't allowed to babysit the Decker children. Jessie James Decker said in a May 2022 Q&A on their YouTube channel, "I don't know that I'd let Gronk babysit our kids. I love Gronk, and I love Camille. But I think that Gronk would let them go wild ... They would be so wild. Like, we'd come home and I feel like the kids would just be, like, jacked up." Jessie also clarified that the children "would be totally safe" because Gronkowski has a sense of responsibility, but he'd be a much better babysitter if Kostek were around.

Fans of Eric and Jessie James Decker were often treated to the couple's most intimate moments on their reality television series, "Eric & Jessie." The duo shared several seductive touches on screen, and when they weren't making suggestive comments, they were role-playing in front of the cameras.

Jessie and Eric were just as open about their sex life behind closed doors, quite literally, because the doors weren't closed in the first place. When Jessie was asked about any difficulties they had during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 2021 interview with Us Weekly, she told the publication that they were forced to seek a bit of privacy.

"We never had a lock on our bedroom door," the "Should Have Known Better" singer confessed. "We had some close calls a few times, so he [Eric] finally put a lock, and that was the only challenge ... We didn't have any of that time together and so we figured it out, got the lock on the door ... We call it 'iPad Time.'"

When Jessie James Decker shared a picture of her children on vacation in a November 2022 Instagram post, fans were quick to notice that they had visible abs. The post subsequently elicited mixed reactions. Part of Jessie's audience thought having abs was normal, since Jessie and Eric Decker have often shared bits of their active lifestyle online, while others accused the mom of four of editing the pictures. A section of critics implied that Jessie and Eric were subjecting their children to intense fitness plans.

Jessie took to the platform to call out the naysayers  by sharing a video of her children flaunting their abs, and wrote in part, "We preach about body positivity and acceptance but my kids having a mass amount of genetic and built muscle from athletics is 'weird'? I want to raise my kids to feel proud of their bodies and hard work from either Vivis elite competitive gymnastics to Eric Jr wanting to be like dad as an NFL receiver to little Forrest who spends hours dancing his heart out. Let's not pick and choose what we normalize regarding bodies and be accepting of all people and children."