Kelly Stafford, wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, has spent years using her podcast to talk openly about marriage, motherhood, football, and the parts of her life that rarely make it into NFL coverage. What began as a personal outlet eventually became a much larger platform, but the attention that came with it also created problems for her and her family.
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Kelly answered a question that keeps coming up from her followers during an Instagram Q&A this week. One fan wanted to know if her podcast, The Morning After, will ever return.
“The morning after… ehh, I just don’t know,” Kelly wrote on her story. “If media would leave it alone, then maybe🤣It’s funny… I started it to have something of my own to kinda help me gain my identity back, but then I felt like media took it away by posting clickbait headlines and taking things out of context. I just don’t know if it’s worth it for me or my family anymore. But I have missed it.”
Credit: Instagram/@kbstafford89
The podcast’s history makes Kelly’s frustration with the media a little easier to understand, because The Morning After has had quite the ride since it launched in 2021. Kelly built it into a popular show centered on her life as an NFL wife, raising four children, Hunter, Tyler, and twins Sawyer and Chandler, while navigating a very public marriage.
Matthew himself appeared on the show multiple times over the years, including a memorable episode recorded the morning after the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI win over the Cincinnati Bengals, where he discussed celebrating late into the night and admitted he hadn’t cried after the win but had gotten choked up during the final drive.
However, in June 2025, Hank Winchester, Kelly’s co-host and a longtime Detroit television reporter, became the subject of a police investigation after an allegation involving a massage. His home was searched, and electronic devices were seized. Winchester denied the allegation, while Kelly continued the podcast without him for several weeks, and Matthew stepped in for some episodes.
The investigation ultimately ended without criminal charges. Winchester returned to The Morning After on August 18 and described the experience as “the worst nine weeks of my life.” Kelly had previously told listeners that Winchester was “dealing with some personal stuff,” rather than discussing the investigation in detail at the time.
In addition to that, Kelly’s own explanation for stepping away came a few weeks later and focused elsewhere. On October 2, 2025, she announced that she was taking about a month away from the podcast, saying she had been struggling with where the show was going and wanted to prioritize her mental health and family.
“What I don’t miss is the anxiety I used to get the night before every episode was released, wondering what headline was going to be created from the episode,” Kelly said in April 2026. “It just felt like my name was in the headlines every week, and that is not what I wanted this podcast for. So that is a big reason why I took a break. I needed a mental break.”
That one-month pause has now stretched past a full year. Kelly offered a similar update back in November last year, telling fans in an Instagram story:
“For right now, just for somewhat of my mental health, and it’s also midseason, there have been changes with this podcast,” Kelly said. “I just think I need to take a step back and kind of figure out what the plan is. I’m not saying this is over. I really need a second.”
This week’s answer kept that same door cracked open without committing to anything. Kelly’s frustration isn’t with podcasting itself, something she describes missing, but with a media cycle she feels turned a project meant to help her reclaim her own identity into a recurring source of stress for her and her family instead.