Kelly Stafford Admits Taking Drastic Steps as Rams QBs Wife ‘Struggling’ With Daughter

Matthew Stafford and wife Kelly Stafford’s love story began long before the NFL spotlight. They met in college, Matthew an up-and-coming quarterback at the University of Georgia. Kelly a cheerleader on the sidelines and love carried them through his development into a Super Bowl winning quarterback. Now, with four daughters and years in the public eye, the couple still have challenges to overcome beyond the gridiron. Kelly has never been afraid to be open about her life. And recently she opened up about a very private challenge. The difficulty of parenting when one child demands nearly all of her energy.

On her podcast, The Morning After, Kelly Stafford shared that she has been experiencing issues with one of her daughters in ways she did not expect. She explained the emotional effect that came from feeling as though she did not recognize her little girl anymore and that any parental strategy she tried from disciplining to explaining appeared not to work. “I have been very, very much struggling with [her],” Kelly explained. “She has become a little girl that I don’t recognize right now. I have tried everything … nothing is working. I’m exhausted.”

In a burst of frustration and determination, she did what she called the drastic thing: made her daughter walk home from school as punishment. “Third day of school she does something not appropriate in my eyes, I make her walk home,” Kelly revealed. “I cried the entire f—–g time she was walking home.” It was a genuine acknowledgement of how difficult it was for parents when love and discipline conflicted. Kelly acknowledged it wasn’t easy, but she believed in making children responsible even if it broke her heart into two.

Kelly continues to explain that why the experience was so emotionally exhausting. “It’s not fair to your sisters that all of my energy right now is going into you every day,” she told her daughter. For Kelly, it was not about the behavior of one child but about trying to achieve fairness and stability for all four daughters. She admitted the stress of having children in the limelight. Stating that “everyone’s like, well, one’s gonna rebel, you’re gonna have that one child that goes off the track.” Kelly countered that line of thinking. “I don’t believe that … and I don’t want that to happen,” she responded, her feelings sounding both authentic and vulnerable.

Her story sounds familiar to parents everywhere who have had to discipline one child while still giving enough love and attention to the rest. The Stafford family tests don’t stop there. Kelly also spoke on Sunday Sports Club podcast about how gossip in Matthew’s career has spilled over into their children. ”There was speculation of [whether] Matthew is getting traded this past year,” she explained. ”There were rumors that ‘his wife was the problem,’ and that’s part of the reason. … The kids at school were picking on them, like, ‘You’re gonna have to move because your mom is an issue, like, she’s too loud and whatever.”’

Discovering that her daughters were bullied because of who she was as a public person added another level of pain. For Kelly, the pressure of her husband’s job and the NFL rumor made her feel she had to protect her family in many ways. It’s a reminder that beneath all the glitter of being an NFL quarterback’s wife is a reality populated with very human struggles, from parenting issues to judgment of outsiders.

The weight of pregnancy

Kelly has also talked candidly about post-baby complications. And her openness brings into focus her current problems being a mother of four.

She admitted that after the arrival of her twins Sawyer and Chandler, she had intimacy and body issues. “I was in a terrible place, and not only did I not have energy for Matthew. But I was so insecure about my body that I would not be naked near him,” she spilled. “I feel like he thought it was something with him, and I’m like, ‘No, I just don’t want s— hanging.”’

The pressure she placed on herself to “bounce back” after giving birth took over, and her marriage was affected by it. “All I could think about was trying to get back, and I never got there,” she said. Kelly admitted that for years she was insecure, comparing herself to other mothers who appeared to bounce back faster.

Her POV changed after the birth of her fourth daughter, Tyler, in 2020. Instead of stressing herself, she started focusing on enjoying the  motherhood. “I think it’s a really good thing to remember, your babies are only babies once,” she said. She further stated that enjoy your time with your children when they are babies. You have your entire life to get your body back.

Kelly confessed that she did not fully enjoy the initial years with the first three children because she was too caught up on body image. But with Tyler, all of these fell into place: “We put so much pressure to bounce back that we forget to enjoy our little ones. I did not enjoy the first three. All I could think about was trying to get back.” Her reflections show how far she has come, from fighting insecurity to finding strength in believing in the imperfect beauty of motherhood.

Through it all, Kelly Stafford has been brutally honest about her existence. From parenting struggles to postpartum complications. From shushing NFL rumors to battling her own insecurity, she has chosen honesty over everything. Her willingness to share the tough aspects of her story screams volumes to so many parents. Who have the same issues but never spoken them out loud.