Rumors That Have Plagued Kelly & Matthew Stafford's Marriage

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and podcaster Kelly Stafford have been married since 2015. In the decade-plus since marrying, Matthew and Kelly (whom some fans can't stand) have attracted all sorts of rumors. And some of them have been pretty ridiculous! 

In 2025, for example, fans started accusing Matthew of dying and being replaced with a clone. Although that could have been a rather traumatic rumor, Kelly played into the speculation, which started when he skipped a few of his team's practices to heal from a back injury. "I knew there was something different about him," she joked on Instagram (via E! News).

Of course, some of the rumors have held more weight. Such was the case with the claim that Kelly and her purported behavior had been affecting Matthew's career and boosting his chances of getting traded from the Rams. "I was like, 'Because of me?'" Kelly said during an appearance on "Sunday Sports Club" (via E! News). "I was, like, 'What the f***?!'" As the outlet noted, Matthew, who spent 11 years with the Detroit Lions before heading to Los Angeles, has been with the Rams since 2021, and at the time of this writing, he appears to be staying for the foreseeable future. 

But that's not the only time that fans have gotten ahead of themselves.

In 2019, Kelly Stafford started feeling dizzy while completing normal, everyday tasks. A MRI eventually revealed that she had a benign brain tumor. "The medical term was an acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma," Stafford wrote for ESPN. "There was a tumor sitting on some of my cranial nerves. I was told I needed to have surgery to remove it." 

Although the tumor was noncancerous, any surgery can be dangerous. Not to mention, the surgery risked damaging hearing in one of her ears. However, those fears proved to be unfounded, as Kelly's doctor was able to save her hearing. And though she experienced a slow recovery, which included an ER setback, she's since made great health strides.

Despite her resilience, the media pinned a scary cancer diagnosis on her after she detailed the troubling abdominal symptoms she'd been experiencing. "There is a bunch circulating right now and want to reiterate that I DO NOT HAVE CANCER," Kelly posted to Instagram in July 2023. "If journalists actually took time to check facts these days, they would know this. ... Most the time I wouldn't care what people wrote because it didn't matter. THIS MATTERS." She continued, "It takes away from the people who are fighting this horrible disease.. fighting to live another day, fighting to be there with the ones they love, fighting 24/7."