A new book about Rory McIlroy is stirring fresh attention around his marriage after excerpts said Erica Stoll was angry about Tiger Woods’s late-night texts to the golfer. Sports Illustrated and the Daily Mail both shared passages from the biography, titled Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar.
The book says the texts bothered Stoll, who has been married to McIlroy since 2017. That account lands with added force because Stoll filed for divorce in May 2024 before withdrawing the petition a month later.
Paul McGinley is quoted in the biography saying, “It can’t be easy being Rory’s wife,” and adding that Stoll is “quiet by nature,” keeps her thoughts to herself and has had to figure out “where she fits in and where she doesn’t.” The book also quotes author Alan Shipnuck as saying, “It didn’t help that Erica had become a neo-Elin Woods [Woods’ ex-wife], never doing any interviews and remaining unknown to the golf public.”
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The backdrop is familiar to anyone who follows McIlroy closely. He is the reigning Masters champion, and last year he, Stoll and their 5-year-old daughter Poppy were at Augusta National when he completed the career grand slam. That public image now sits beside a biography that frames part of his private life through the strain of the divorce filing and the Tiger Woods messages.
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What matters next is less the gossip than the reaction. The book has reopened a window into how McIlroy’s personal life has been watched as closely as his golf, and it does so at a moment when the family side of his career remains part of the public record, not a separate chapter.