The Minnesota Vikings have rallied to a 7-6 record, good for sixth place in the NFC, after a demoralizing 1-4 start to the 2023 season. That’s a feat made all the more impressive when considering that Minnesota’s been without quarterback Kirk Cousins since the midway point of the season.
The Vikings appeared to catch lightning in a bottle with trade acquisition Joshua Dobbs, but his propensity for backbreaking turnovers has become apparent in recent weeks. This has led the team to pivot once more, this time to journeyman Nick Mullens.
Mullens will draw the start in Minnesota’s visit to the Cincinnati Bengals this Saturday afternoon, a cross-conference matchup that could prove pivotal to both team’s playoff hopes. It’ll mark Mullens’ first start since December of 2021.
The 28-year-old is pretty solidly entrenched as a career backup at this point, but all it’ll take is one strong stretch of play, perhaps accompanied by a playoff run, to earn Mullens a longer-term starting role in Minnesota or elsewhere — a possibility his wife, the former Haleigh Hughes, will no doubt be rooting hard for.
Which brings us to the question posed in the headline.
Who Is Nick Mullens’ Wife, Haleigh Hughes?
Much like her other half, Haleigh counts the University of Southern Mississippi as her alma mater. In fact, according to her LinkedIn page, she spent all four of her years in undergrad as a member of the Golden Eagles cheerleading team. It stands to reason, then, that she and Mullens initially met through their ties to the athletic program.
It’s a common movie trope: The star quarterback and the head cheerleader fall in love and live happily ever after — the sort of occurrence that many among us would dismiss as unrealistic or too good to be true in a real-life setting. However, the Mullens couple has been happily married since they tied the knot back in July of 2017.
The couple welcomed their first son, Luke Clayton Mullens, into the world two years later in August of 2019, as per CBS Sports. She wrote the following about her little bundle of joy in an Instagram post soon after his birth:
“Luke Clayton Mullens has completely changed our world! 9 lbs 5oz and 20 inches of perfection. We are so in love! 08.30.19”
Information is scarce in the public sphere, but it’s evident that the Mullens family has grown over the past several years. According to Haleigh’s Twitter bio, the couple has since had another son and is soon expecting their first daughter. But it’s not just her home life; Haleigh’s work life is also chock full of children.
MORE: PFN Life — Off-the-Field Content
When Haleigh graduated from Southern Miss, she did so with a bachelor’s in liberal studies and a minor in psychology. But according to multiple sources, she decided to parlay her own higher education into a career spent educating others … as an elementary school teacher. Multiple sources list Haleigh as a fourth-grade teacher at Oak Grove Upper Elementary in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
While Haleigh credits her firstborn for changing her world, it’s obvious that she deserves some credit for helping to shape the worlds of her own children as well as those who she’s taught.
Sarah Wilson is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
