Given Stoll’s steadfast appearance by McIlroy’s side at the Master’s, it seems that the couple has indeed worked things out, at least enough to continue to appear together as a family. We have no idea what actually happened in their marriage, but the one thing we do know is it was McIlroy who instigated the split, at least legally.
It’s even more absurd, then, that the gossip about the reasons for their brief breakup are largely being placed on Stoll’s shoulders. This is at least, according to “body language experts” consulted by tabloids like the Daily Mail and Page Six, who have picked apart every pixel and frame of Stoll’s actions of the Master’s and declared her wanting. One expert told Page Six that Stoll seemed “polite” as she congratulated her husband on his victory, calling the reaction “subdued.”
“Erica uses back pats, which are firstly a gesture of gentle affection but which also usually signal a desire to break from an embrace, while Rory appears much more clingy,” she claimed.
According to the tabloids, it’s obvious why Stoll would feel “subdued”—the “humiliating” divorce petition. But wait, there’s more! McIlroy, they claim, is rumored to have dated a CBS Sports reporter at some point during the split, which neither have ever confirmed. Adding to Stoll’s humiliation, then, is the fact that McIlroy did an interview with the reporter after his victory, and—gasp—didn’t mention his wife, just his parents and daughter. He was also spotted hugging a “mystery blonde,” mused another paper, who conveniently mentions a few paragraphs down that the woman is actually the wife of his competitor, Justin Rose.
I’ll be the one to ask the perhaps obvious question: why is the public not picking apart McIlroy’s reaction toward Stoll, especially since he was the one who filed for divorce in the first place? Imagine, just for a moment, that a woman athlete reconciled with her husband, and the press then tore him to shreds once they reappeared in public again, dissecting every frame of his actions to somehow determine he was to blame. It sounds absurd because it is. A man would never face this level of scrutiny.
This all begs another question. How exactly was Stoll supposed to behave when her husband won the Master’s? We have to assume that if she’d dissolved into histrionics, screaming and crying and clutching his chest, the commentary would have been equally condemning. Women aren’t allowed to emote too much either, and the headlines would have been filled with how Stoll stole McIlroy’s moment, how she clearly embarrassed him, and on and on and on. Should she have left her Patek Philippe at home? Worn a different hat? Or is it that she should have never let her relationship get to a point where its public cracks were exposed, because showing even a bit of vulnerability is seen as an open invitation for relentless scrutiny?
Here’s the truth: Stoll couldn’t win. Because if you actually watch her performance in her role as Rory McIlroy’s wife without any bias, you can easily see the truth. She did nothing wrong. Just because a woman may act differently than some may expect does not mean her actions are open for debate. But in 2025, that reality is becoming blurred in a way that’s troubling for all of us, no matter who we are married to.