Has Yvette Prieto Brought ‘Air Jordan’ Down to Earth?

Yvette Prieto and Michael Jordan
Yvette Prieto and Michael Jordan

Yvette Prieto, 35, who wed Michael Jordan, 50, on Saturday, stayed remarkably under the radar during the their five-year courtship-maybe that's because she appears to be a woman with her two feet planted firmly on the ground.

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According to an interview with ESPN, Prieto is helping Jordan-as famous for his ego as he is for his air-come down to earth as well. In February, the couple moved from Chicago to a condominium in the Bear's Club community in Jupiter, Florida developed by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus. He friends joke that it's his "retirement home" but the sprawling, eleven-bedroom residence seems more like a domestic oasis. There is a giant kitchen where Jordan and Prieto like to entertain close friends around an island with choice wine from his cellar, take out steaks, and homemade salads.

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Its possible they moved to Florida to be closer to Prieto's family. She grew up in a close-knit Cuban-American family in Miami. "It was down in Florida," reports ESPN, "where he was spending time with Yvette's Cuban family, that he got a taste of the life he'd traded for the jet-set circus of modern celebrity. They weren't fawning -her grandparents, who speak little English, aren't basketball fans-and he sat at a dinner table, with people laughing and eating home-cooked food." It brought him back to his own childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. A couple of years ago, Prieto convinced Jordan to drive around North Carolina to visit his family who live all over the state. More accustomed to a private jet than road tripping, he joked, "It's amazing what women can talk you into doing."

Prieto has also shared her love of the sea with her new husband-despite the fact that he "hates the water." They have taken a number of sailing trips together and he's learned to love fishing for yellow fin tuna-and making fresh sushi with his catch. On their first trip, he "went stir crazy" but on "the most recent trip, he felt his rage dissolve." Jordan who is usually glued to sports tapes for hours on ends didn't even watch basketball. Instead, he's taken to playing old home videos of his three college-aged kids from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 2006.

Although Prieto is described by the press as a "former model" and is certainly stunning, she also studied business and worked in real estate and in a hospital. Her former boyfriend, Julio Iglesias, Jr. described her as "a fantastic girl…Aside from her beauty, which is obvious, she is loving, simple and very good person."

Jordan is notorious for his temper but he's also known having a soft spot. He's a guy who, according to ESPN, tears up after meeting Make-A-Wish Foundation kids and sends Mother's Day roses to all his staffers who are moms. Anyone who stands six-foot-six and weighs 250 pounds must has a big heart, and Yvette Prieto has won a huge piece of it.

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