Gianna Hearn: A Backstory That Became a God Story

How finding Jesus led Gianna Hearn on a healing journey she didn’t even know she needed. 

Gianna Hearn DEC 2025

From conception on, Gianna Hearn’s life was messy. At the age of fifteen, her mother was raped and went on to give birth to her at the age of sixteen, a secret she wouldn’t be told until she was 21. So, from a very young age, Hearn felt the void of a Father. 

Luckily, her mother’s family was a big Italian family that made up for it as much as it was possible. They taught her how to cook, talk boldly, love hard, and be passionate, the same skills she uses now in her everyday life. 

Her mother would marry and divorce several times. There were times of prosperity, and there were times of chaos, which led to multiple moves throughout her life and growing up in abuse shelters at times. A few favorable things that came out of the marriages were her siblings and the healthy bonds she made with some of the husbands, particularly one who now acts as her father. Still, there was a hole. Not knowing the identity of her biological father left lots of questions about who she was ethnically and as a human overall. 

Those questions were all answered or became irrelevant to her in 2017. By this time, she had wrestled with being a child made out of force for about 6 years. She went back and forth about doing genetic testing to find out more about herself, her health, and her genes. She did ancestry and genetics testing and could now say that she was African-American after years of thinking she could be almost anything. The technology enabled her to have some resolution, but the testing also introduced her to potential family members on her paternal side. In the midst of trying to find out if she truly discovered who her father was, she was invited to church to hear her now husband preach. 

From that moment on, Gianna’s healing journey began. She studied the Bible for a month and got baptized in 2017, learning that the only father she needed to find was her Heavenly Father. In the waters of baptism, her desire to search for her biological dad vanished, and her identity was revealed—she was a daughter of the Most High. 

It sounds simple and light, but to get to that point, Hearn faced a lot of ups and downs in life. At that particular moment, she was healing from a knee surgery that took her out of work as a rising sports broadcast journalist for 6 months, eventually turning into almost two years away from the camera. 

It was a devastating blow. Her whole life, she had tried to bring honor to her mother by accomplishing everything her mother gave up for her—playing sports, graduating high school, getting a college degree, and becoming a success story instead of another statistic. 

It seemed to all be going well until she could no longer physically do her job as an active sports journalist. To this day, Gianna needs to regain the leg muscles lost in her surgery, but thankfully, her return to the camera came back with even more momentum than before. This time, she returned with a healed mind, soul, and a new identity. 

Before taking a break from broadcasting, Hearn’s identity was in her career title, a title that was never meant to be more than a mere definition of what she does for work, not who she is. Understanding who she was made her stronger mentally for the lows she would face in the years ahead. 

Today, Gianna has over a decade of broadcast experience. She has covered some of the most prolific athletes in sports history on the sidelines and in the studio. She has focused on covering mostly basketball, but has covered a multitude of sports. Her passion for sports journalism stems from her early days of playing volleyball, basketball, and track until injury forced her to stop playing before she could accept a college track scholarship. 

Not being able to play collegiately is the reason she chose to major in broadcast journalism. She cares about people and their stories and knows there’s much more to athletes than what fans see on TV. Now married to a former athlete who struggled with mental health, she has seen all sides of professional sports and knows what it takes for athletes to stay in competitive shape and elite health. She is interested in sharing athletes’ secrets on health and wellness with the world. 

After a traumatic labor with her daughter in 2022, Hearn has become increasingly more interested in health and wellness. Over the past three years, since her emergency C-section, she has had numerous health problems and was recently diagnosed with Graves’ Disease, an autoimmune condition that causes hyperthyroidism. Along with these health challenges, there also exists the concern that dementia runs in her family.

Gianna is dedicated to finding healing for herself and others and believes, “God has created all that is good, and all that is good for us, let’s go find it and heal.” 

Hearn can't wait to deliver stories that reflect her passion for spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health. 

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