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J.J. Watt rails at news outlet’s tweet referring to Kealia Ohai only as his fiancée

J.J. Watt and Kealia Ohai attend a Houston Rockets game on April 16, 2017, at Houston's Toyota Center.
J.J. Watt and Kealia Ohai attend a Rockets game on April 16, 2017, at Houston’s Toyota Center.
(Bob Levey / Getty Images)
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Kealia Ohai has made a name for herself as a soccer player. That name is not “J.J. Watt’s fiancée.”

Since being selected by Houston at No. 2 overall in the 2014 National Women’s Soccer League draft, Ohai has scored 28 goals and added 16 assists for the Dash, while serving as a team captain for the last three seasons.

On Monday, she was traded to the Chicago Red Stars for defender Katie Naughton and a second-round draft pick.

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A Houston-area TV station made a curious decision in reporting the news.

“Houston Dash trade J.J. Watt’s fiancee to Chicago,” read a tweet from the ABC-13 (Houston) account early Tuesday.

Several people voiced their displeasure that Ohai’s name was left out in favor of the Houston Texans star defensive end.

One of those people was Ohai’s future husband.

“This headline is trash,” Watt wrote in a retweet of the ABC-13 post. “Kealia Ohai (which is her name by the way, since you didn’t even bother to mention it) is incredible entirely on her own merit and deserves to be treated as such. Be better than this.”

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The link in the tweet leads to a story that currently has the headline, “Houston Dash star Kealia Ohai traded to Chicago.” But the original tweet remains on the station’s feed.

Ohai gave Watt’s tweet a thumbs-up in what appears to be her only public response to the controversy. Her own Twitter feed features messages of gratitude toward the Dash and their fans as well as excitement about her future with the Red Stars.

“My goal is to become the very best player I can possibly be and I feel like in order for that to happen I need a new environment,” she said in a video tweet. “I appreciate the Dash’s support through this entire process and I will always consider Houston home.”

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