Golfer Rory McIlroy and wife Erica Stoll had a rough patch last year, but they are putting on a strong front as he looks to capture his very first Masters title.
McIlroy filed for divorce in May 2024, but withdrew it just one month later.
“There have been rumours about my personal life recently, which is unfortunate,” he said. “Responding to each rumour is a fool’s game. Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realized that our best future was as a family together. Thankfully, we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning.”
In Full Swing, the Netflix docuseries about golf, McIlroy hinted at the drama. “There’s parts of my life that I like to keep as private as possible,” he said. “Unfortunately, in this line of work, that isn’t always possible. I’ve always tried to be protective of my loved ones from people that have ill intentions.”
McIlroy added, “I think it was a wake-up call for me to say, ‘Let’s just focus on the golf for a little bit.’” Stoll has not publicly commented on what happened.
Here, get to know Rory McIlroy’s wife Erica Stoll:
She’s from New York.
Erica grew up in Irondequoit, New York (a suburb of Rochester) and graduated from Irondequoit High School in 2003. She played tennis in high school. After, she went on to study at the Rochester Institute of Technology, graduating in 2008 with a degree in marketing.
Erica worked for the PGA.
After graduating college, she started working for the PGA, first as an office manager ahead of the 2008 Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Pittsford, near Rochester.
She met Rory McIlroy by chance.
“Stoll and McIlroy's first encounter came by chance. She was the PGA employee who helped save him from missing his tee time at the 2012 Ryder Cup in Medinah, Illinois. It was a time zone mishap, McIlroy said. He'd misinterpreted his tee time, which was 11:25 a.m. central time, as 12:25 ET,” per Democrat & Chronicle. “Stoll was at the course and noticed McIlroy's absence the Sunday morning of the final day's singles matches. She alerted officials and McIlroy received a police escort to get to the course.”
When he returned to Medinah in 2019, McIlory later recalled, “Erica that week was always the one that was checking us in and out. She was there at transportation, so she was always in the car park over there [by the clubhouse]. But yeah, it’s still cool to look around and think about that week, and obviously everything that’s happened since then. It’s pretty cool.”
They were just friends at first (at the time, McIlroy was dating, then engaged to, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki), and officially started dating at the end of 2014.
McIlroy proposed in 2015, and they married in 2017.
He proposed to her in Paris, and they married at Ashford Castle in County Mayo, Ireland, keeping it very private.
“He's obviously one of the world’s best golfers and a huge celebrity in Ireland, but Erica very much keeps herself to herself and she’s not into being out there at all and I think that’s the way they wanted to keep the wedding, so fair play to them,” fellow golfer Shane Lowry told the Irish Independent of the wedding. “At the end of the day, your wedding is your wedding and you hope that it’s only going to be the one time that you do it. If you want to have a special day with your family and friends, I think you should be allowed to do that as well. Rory does enough for charity and enough for people and I think he gives enough back that I think he should be allowed do that.”
She became a mom in August 2020.
McIlroy and Stoll welcomed daughter Poppy Kennedy McIlroy on August 31, 2020.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
