Kelly Stafford is not pretending Los Angeles has become home in every sense.
The wife of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said the city’s image-obsessed culture has put pressure on her to look a certain way, and she tied that feeling to what her daughters may face growing up there. In an interview with Us Weekly, she did not say she has had any plastic surgery or name a doctor, but she made clear that the expectation is something she feels.
“I, as a 37-year-old woman, feel pressure to look a certain way here. It’s normal for everyone to do things and whatnot. I feel that pressure,” she said.
Stafford, who grew up in Georgia, has spent five years in Los Angeles since Matthew was traded from Detroit to the Rams in 2021. The family has stayed through a championship and into another season, but she said the move still does not feel fully settled. The couple married in 2015 after meeting at Georgia, and they now have four daughters whose lives are rooted in California, with teams, friends and school routines.
“I can only imagine being my daughters growing up here,” Stafford said. “I would hope that they see it as, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s just what people do here, but we’re good.’
But I think it will be hard. There’s just a lot here.”
She added that the pressure is not exclusive to California, but said it feels heavier there.
Stafford also turned the conversation toward the family’s future in Los Angeles, and she did not offer a clean answer. Matthew has said he loves it in the city, while she said she misses Georgia and still thinks about family first.
“[Whether we’ll stay in Los Angeles] is a question I ask myself every day. Family’s first for us.
I miss my family like crazy,” she said. “But I also have to realize that my daughters are older and have made friends and have routines and sports teams.
My husband loves it out here. So, what’s the compromise?
I don’t know yet.”
Kelly Stafford has also spoken before about the toll Matthew’s schedule can take, including a suggestion that missing weekend games weighs on him. She has been public as well about appearance culture, including a reshare that pushed back on the pressure on girls after a Sydney Sweeney sports ad.
Matthew Stafford’s latest stop with the Rams continued Sunday in Philadelphia, where he was back at a podium after the game. Kelly’s comments did not point to any retirement timeline or any procedure. They did show a mother trying to sort out a city she still has not fully embraced.
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