Rory McIlroy Affair Rumors That Fueled His Divorce Drama With Erica Stoll

In April 2025, Rory McIlroy won the 89th Masters, which earned him a Grand Slam (for those not into golf, that's winning all four major championships). Only five other players have the accolade. His wife Erica Stoll and their four-year-old daughter Poppy were there to watch him take the title, which is quite the turnaround from a year before when the two almost got divorced. Also in attendance at the event was Amanda Balionis, a CBS sports reporter, who was rumored to be having an affair with McIlroy around the time of the divorce filing.

Back in May 2024, golf star Rory McIlroy filed for divorce from his wife. McIlroy and Stoll first met back in 2012, and they got married in 2017. Just a month after the divorce filing, the decision was reversed. McIlroy hinted at the affair rumors in his response to comment about why the divorce was called off. "There have been rumours about my personal life recently, which is unfortunate. Responding to each rumour is a fool's game," McIlroy told The Guardian after news came out that the divorce was off.

"Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realised that our best future was as a family together," he continued. "Thankfully, we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning." While he didn't mention Balionis by name, we're pretty sure she was one of the rumors that he was talking about.

The rumors about an affair between Rory McIlroy and Amanda Balionis were fueled by interviews between the two of them from 2024, with some people saying that it looked like they were flirting. One person on X (formerly known as Twitter) said at the time, "Seeing Amanda Balionis interview Rory McIlroy makes me convinced she's got evening plans with him." Neither McIlroy or Balionis have discussed the affair rumors publicly, and their relationship is reportedly solely a professional one.

Along with the interviews, there was also the fact that Balionis, who was married to Bryn Renner, had been seen without her wedding ring that year. She ended up dropping his last name from her social media accounts too. It's not clear at this time if the two are still married.

Before marrying Stoll, McIlroy was engaged to Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki; they split in 2014 via a phone call from McIlroy. McIlroy was later rumored to be romantically linked to Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex back in 2014, though there was no relationship between the two.