American tennis star Jessica Pegula has been rising in women’s tennis. She is currently seeded No. 7 in the world and most recently reached the semifinals of the 2025 US Open, going down against the eventual tournament champion Aryna Sabalenka in three gruelling sets.
While Pegula has been fairly dominant with her performances in recent tournaments, she has found the perfect partner off the court: her husband, Taylor Gahagen. The couple has been rumored to be dating since 2015 and eventually got engaged in 2019.
The duo was initially scheduled to marry in 2020, but pushed the date to the following year. They exchanged wedding vows in a beautiful ceremony in October 2021.
Jessica Pegula Shares a Hilarious Anecdote of Husband Taylor Gahagen
Pegula, alongside her fellow countrywomen Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady, and Desirae Krawczyk, headlined the latest episode of “The Player’s Box” podcast. In the episode, the players began discussing the topic ‘Dating while on tour’ and then discussed the slice forehands and backhands.
During this discussion, Pegula patiently waited for Keys and Brady to finish speaking and then shared a hilarious anecdote of her husband. She said, “Taylor just tries to tell me to slice more. That’s always his go-to.”
At this point Brady intervened and asked who her husband’s favorite player was, to which Pegula replied, “Niculescu. Yeah. He loves her…”
She added, “I forget who she was playing. She was playing like someone we knew. And he was like, oh, that’s nasty. Like just the cutter, like the slice forehand. He loves it. So he’s just like, yeah, you need to like just do some more spins and stuff.”
Pegula concluded, “Clearly my husband is not a tennis player. Or has no formal background or any whatever. But that’s usually just his advice to me. And I’m just like, okay.”
Gahagen Previously Worked in Pegula Sports and Entertainment Corporation
After completing his MBA from Canisius University in Buffalo, N.Y., Gahagen started working for the Pegula Sports and Entertainment company, owned by Terry and Kim Pegula, Pegula’s parents.
The multi-billion-dollar firm owns some top teams in American major leagues, such as the Buffalo Bills of the NFL and the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL. Gahagen got close to the family during his tenure at the firm and eventually started dating Jessica.
After working with the Pegula Corporation for almost a decade, Gahagen left the firm and is now a managing partner in Dragos Capital and Agarwood Wealth. Gahagen is also the Vice President of Jessica’s skincare brand, Ready 24, and assists her in running her charitable/philanthropic firm, A Lending Paw.
