Entertainment

Inside Rory McIlroy’s divorce U-turn from ‘broken’ marriage to ‘new beginning’ with Erica Stoll

Published

6 months ago

June 12, 2024

McIlroy goes into the US Open still missing his wedding ring but buoyant after the news that he and his wife have reconciled

The wedding ring was still missing but Rory McIlroy’s noticeably upbeat mood at Pinehurst was the telling clue that a cloud above his head had lifted.

His happy demeanour in US Open week was in stark contrast with those tense scenes at the US PGA Championship when it emerged divorce was pending. Nobody had expected to see the return of McIlroy in relaxed, gregarious form before the media just a month on. If anything, his mood might have darkened as speculation cranked up around his personal life, with TMZ, the US website, publishing pictures of him last week embracing CBS Sports reporter Amanda Balionis and citing “rumours” swirling “about the nature of their relationship”. Other outlets went further, claiming Balionis “is the talk of the links and has left many fans wondering just how close the pair have become”. In truth, the embrace was nothing out of the ordinary on the PGA Tour and the relationship between the pair was reported to be “strictly professional”, but the narrative was out of control.

Behind the scenes though, for McIlroy, the true story was leading to a happier conclusion, especially for his three-year-old daughter Poppy. Rather than moving out of the family home, the Northern Irishman was, in fact, patching up his marriage with Erica Stoll, his wife of seven years and mother of his only child.

Appearing at his press conference on Tuesday, McIlroy was buoyant but gave nothing away, letting his career roll of honour do the talking instead. “I’m really proud of my body of work over the past 15 years and everything that I have achieved, whether it be season-long titles or individual tournaments or majors,” McIlroy said.

Only later that evening did it emerge the divorce petition he filed in a Florida court last month had been voluntarily dismissed. McIlroy’s lawyer, Thomas Sasser, wrote in his Notice of Voluntary Dismissal: “Petitioner Rory D McIlroy, by and through the undersigned counsel, hereby voluntarily dismisses, without prejudice, the above styled matter.”

Friends maintain McIlroy’s main priority is to keep the family together. “He doesn’t care about money,” said one. But whatever has gone on behind closed doors, the couple have concluded a costly divorce for one of the UK’s richest sportsmen – worth an estimated £312 million – will be avoided.

Whether the couple will now put on a united front in public remains to be seen, but McIlroy would tell a Guardian reporter over the phone that he was looking forward to a “new beginning” with Erica.

“Responding to each rumour is a fool’s game,” said McIlroy, battle-worn after other high-profile relationship breakdowns that included once being linked to Meghan Markle. “Erica and I have realised that our best future was as a family together.”

McIlroy arrived in North Carolina seeking to end a wait for a fifth major stretching back to August 2014. Coincidentally, it is also 10 years since his last major relationship, with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, ended abruptly when wedding invitations were sent out only to realise he “wasn’t ready for all that marriage entails”.