Pro golfer Rory McIlroy filed for divorce from wife Erica Stoll on Monday, roughly seven years after they tied the knot and more than a decade after they first met.
The Northern Irish athlete, 35, submitted his filing in Florida, just days before he’s set to compete at the PGA Championship in Louisville, Ky., according to court records obtained by TMZ.
In a statement to the outlet Tuesday, McIlroy’s manager noted that the majors champ has no comment on the filing and wants to make “this difficult time … as respectful and amicable as possible.”
McIlroy and Stoll met in 2012, when he was in a relationship with Danish tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki and Stoll worked the PGA’s Ryder Cup event.
McIlroy and Wozniacki got engaged on New Year’s Eve 2013 but he called off the wedding the following spring — the same year he reportedly started dating Stoll.
McIlroy at the time issued a statement in which he realized that, after sending out wedding invites, he “wasn’t ready for all that marriage entails.” He noted the decision to split had been a “mutual” one.
A year later, McIlroy told The Times of London he had “met someone new.”
“She doesn’t play golf, but she is involved with golf. I have known her for three years and we are good friends,” he said in May 2015. “If everything off the golf course is good, it allows you to be better on it as well.”
McIlroy and Stoll were engaged by the end of the year and said “I do” in spring 2017, in the presence of stars like Stevie Wonder, Chris Martin, Niall Horan, Ed Sheeran and Jamie Dornan.
Together, McIlroy and Stoll welcomed daughter Poppy in August 2020, with the former noting on Instagram that the newborn was “the absolute love of our lives.”
Though he has not yet posted about the divorce filing, McIlroy on Monday shared a joint post with PGA Championship that shows him on the golf course, captioned: “Sweet Dreams.”
