Ginny Cha Was Tiki Barber's First Wife - More about Her & Their Marriage

Ginny Cha and Tiki Barber were college sweethearts who married and built a family that fell apart just as Ginny was about to give birth to their twins. Tiki was accused of infidelity with a co-worker who later became his wife.

Ginny Cha was married to former Giants running back Tiki Barber for over ten years. The pair stuck together through thick and thin, as Tiki shared in his 2008 memoir "Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond."

The book came out just two years before the world watched as their marriage controversially unraveled. Although things ended on a bittersweet note, Tiki and Ginny's love story was quite the opposite.

Ginny Cha Was Dating Someone When She Met Her Ex-Husband

Ginny attended the University of Virginia alongside Tiki. The pair met through a mutual connection, as Tiki's roommate was romantically interested in Ginny's. Ginny's roommate was reluctant to go out alone with a guy she barely knew, so it became a group outing, with Ginny and Tiki tagging along.

Tiki shared that he and Ginny were seeing other people when they met, so "that took some of the pressure off to hook up right away." He said it allowed him and Ginny to be "natural" with each other, and they became friends. One of the first things he learned about Ginny was how "quick" she was.

"I felt challenged by her, intellectually, emotionally, socially," he reflected. They went their separate ways in the summer of 1995 and reunited that fall; that was when they began dating. A few years later, Tiki was drafted into the NFL.

"That first year of pro ball, absence made my heart grow fonder, more tortured, and incredibly lonely. I asked Ginny to marry me. I had to have her in my life," he said. The former couple tied the knot on May 15, 1999, at the UVA chapel. They moved to Manhattan, New York, afterward.

Tiki Barber Won over His First Wife's Parents during a Health Crisis

Tiki shared that he didn't get to know Ginny's parents until she needed to undergo an emergency appendectomy in 1995. The NFL star-turned-correspondent said her father, Won Cha, was "very guarded."

However, he believed he had won him over when he saw Tiki doing his schoolwork while waiting for Ginny in the reception room. "I think he's okay," Tiki remembered his former father-in-law saying to his wife, Nga Cha.

Tiki idolized Ginny's parents' story and way of life. Her father was born in North Korea and studied in Japan, but eventually moved to South Korea, where he began a new life. Won worked as an electrical engineer for the US government in Vietnam, where he met Nga.

The couple then emigrated and settled in Washington, DC, in 1975. They named Ginny Virginia Joy Cha after the state in which she was born. Ginny was their second child, following her older sister.

Tiki also liked how Ginny's father worked while her mother stayed home and looked after her and her sister, though he acknowledged that such norms had changed. He talked about how ambitious Ginny was and how hard she worked to achieve her goals.

After they moved to Manhattan, Ginny got an entry-level job in public relations and worked long hours before landing another at the men's fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna. Ginny dealt with the media as part of her work, but also as the wife of a well-known football athlete.

Tiki recalled one interview where a reporter tried digging for information about Tiki's relationship with Ginny's parents. "Isn't there a lot of prejudice against blacks in Korean culture?" the reporter asked and kept prying until Ginny finally said:

"My father lived as a Korean in Japan. My mother grew up in Vietnam during a real difficult time. Because of their own intercultural marriage, my parents have felt prejudice against them their whole lives. How could they possibly participate in it themselves?"

The Highly Publicized End of Tiki Barber and Ginny Cha's Marriage

Ginny was pregnant with twin girls when she and Tiki separated. The couple had already welcomed two sons, AJ and Chason, into their union. The news of their split broke in April 2010, with numerous outlets writing of Tiki "dumping" Ginny for his younger co-worker Traci Johnson.

Traci had been an intern at NBC, where Tiki served as a correspondent. It was alleged that their relationship began while Tiki and Ginny were still together. The rumors were relentless, but Tiki finally addressed them the following year.

He shared that he and Ginny had gone through counseling for over two years before separating in late 2009. The former couple filed for divorce in 2010, and it was finalized in 2012. Tiki then married Traci that year and welcomed two daughters, making Tiki a father of six.

The youngsters frequently appear on Traci's page. In 2022, she clarified that her romance with Tiki began after he split from Ginny. It was after Terese Giudice (mom to Gabriella Giudice) brought the rumors up again on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," also starring Margaret Joseph.

Following the controversy, Ginny kept a low profile. Little is known about her life now, but she has a private IG profile, where she goes by Ginny Cha Hoffman. Additionally, her profile picture shows her posing for a selfie with an unknown gentleman.