Heather Carr: Unraveling the Mystery Behind Derek Carr’s Wife – Update

Derek Carr and Heather Carr are playing the long game.

The New Orleans Saints quarterback married Heather (née Neel) in June 2012, and the couple have since welcomed four children together.

They met while Derek’s career was just getting started, as the future NFL star was playing for the Fresno State Bulldogs in college. Heather was studying at the same university and serving as a waitress when Derek entered the restaurant where she worked.

In the years since, Derek has been able to rely on the support of Heather and their children as they cheer for him on the sidelines. While his job will always be important to him, the NFL quarterback has also made it clear that his family will always come first.

As he told ABC7 in 2013, “I’m going to be a husband and a father and a brother a lot longer than I’m going to be a quarterback. Someday they’re going to take my jersey away.”

So who is Derek Carr’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Heather Carr and her relationship with the NFL quarterback.

She met Derek when they attended the same college

Derek enrolled at California State University, Fresno — which his brother David already attended — in 2009 as an early-entry freshman, and Heather also attended the college at the same time.

In an interview with ABC7, Heather explained that she first met Derek when he came into the steakhouse she was working at. She said that, as a pick-up line, he asked her why she was only wearing one earring when she knew she was wearing two, prompting her to check her ears.

“I asked her if she could come pick me up because I wanted to show her off to my friends because she was so beautiful,” Derek recounted to the outlet of their first meeting. “They wouldn’t believe me. I’m texting this girl. She’s so beautiful. I’m gonna marry this girl. And they would laugh at me. We hadn’t even hung out yet.”

She married Derek in 2012

Heather and Derek got married in June 2012. A decade later, the couple celebrated their 10th anniversary, and Heather posted a selection of couple and family photos on Instagram to mark the special occasion.

“Celebrated 10 years of being married to my best friend!” she wrote in the caption. “You are more than I could’ve ever dreamed or imagined. I love you.”

She has four children with Derek

Derek and Heather have three sons and one daughter together. Their eldest son, Dallas, was born on Aug. 5, 2013, while his younger brother, Deker, was born on March 17, 2016. Three years later, on May 16, 2019, the couple’s youngest son, Deakon, was born. Their daughter, Brooklyn, was born on Nov. 30, 2020.

Dallas was born early with intestinal malrotation, a rare condition in which an infant is born with their intestines entangled. He needed three emergency surgeries before going home with his parents and has been healthy since.

In 2014, Derek spoke with the NFL about the scary moment when his Fresno State coaches pulled him off the field to tell him Dallas was going back into surgery. “I ran up the ramp bawling my eyes out because I can’t do anything to help my son but pray for him,” he said.

“There was a lot of emotion going through all of that and I get choked up talking about it now, but he’s doing great now and he has no problems,” Derek added.

She’s passionate about her Christian faith

Both Heather and Derek are open about their Christian faith. In an ABC7 interview, Heather said, “The first thing he told me was what he wanted in a wife.” When the interviewer asked if that put her off, she said, “No, because I thought he knows what he wants. He shared his faith, we shared the same interests. We shared the same faith.”

Derek, who comes from a Christian background as his grandparents are Pentecostal pastors, said Heather grounded him after he strayed from his more religious upbringing at the beginning of college.

Heather later told ABC30 in a September 2022 interview that she wrote him a letter telling him he wasn’t who she thought he was. “And, if you ask Derek, that’s what changed him,” she told the outlet. “And so I feel like the Lord just worked out that situation so perfectly, but looking back, it was the toughest thing to do.”

Derek added in his ABC7 interview that he was happy to be led back to his religious lifestyle.

“I’ve lived the other life. And I’ve lived the life the Bible teaches,” Derek said. “I can tell you right now I am more stable and more sturdy. And I’ve got a lot more joy and peace. I would never trade any one of those nights for a night just sitting here watching football with them.”

She supports her husband’s career

Heather is supportive of her husband’s NFL career, both on and off the field.

“Some days he comes home, he’s quiet, he’s tired,” Heather told ABC30. “Just making sure he always knows that I’m here to encourage him, support him, do I need to do anything for you.”

Derek was benched for his final two games with the Raiders at the end of the 2022 season and told he would be released that February. In an interview with The Fresno Bee, he said that his treatment made his wife cry, and for that reason, he wouldn’t have stayed with the Raiders even if they had changed their mind about releasing him.

“Once they made my wife cry, that was pretty much over,” he admitted. “Once they made her cry, that was out.”

Derek has since joined the New Orleans Saints.

She fundraises alongside her husband

When Dallas was being treated for intestinal malrotation, the couple stayed at Valley Children’s Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, California.

As a result, Heather and Derek created the DC4KIDS Touchdown Challenge to help raise money for the hospital through the Valley Children’s Healthcare Foundation.

“With going into the NFL, we wanted to give back and in the NFL, you get to pick your cause and so that was always our cause was Valley Children’s,” Heather told ABC30.