Seven years after PGA Golf tour star Rory McIlroy married Erica Stoll at a fairytale wedding in Ireland, the couple has confirmed they are divorcing but will co-parent their daughter Poppy Kennedy McIlroy, three.
The couple met at the Ryder Cup back in 2012 and married in 2017. The divorce petition was filed in Palm Beach County State Court in Florida on Monday, and the four-time major winner’s team issued a statement describing his desire for a “respectful and amicable” process.
They aren’t the only celebrity couple to call it quits after this amount of time, so what is it about the seven-year mark that gives couples the itch?
Global pop icon Mariah Carey, 55, and her boyfriend dancer Bryan Tanaka, 41, met in 2006 when Bryan was one of her backup dancers on tour.
The pair didn’t get together until 2016, before spitting in 2023 after seven years - reportedly because they wanted different things.
“He wants to have a family. That’s not where she is at,” a source alleged. Mariah already has twins Morocco and Monroe, 13, with ex-husband Nick Cannon.
Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara and Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello also divorced after seven years of marriage.
Sofia, 51, confessed she split from her “younger husband” Joe Manganiello, 47, in a row over having kids. “My marriage broke up because my husband was younger; he wanted to have kids and I didn’t want to be an old mom,” she told Spanish newspaper El Pais. “I feel it’s not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore.”
Teyana Taylor, 33, who featured in Kanye West's music video for Fade and rapper Jay-Z's video Blue Magic split from former basketball player Iman Shumpert, 33, after seven years of marriage. The pair were thought to be one of the strongest Hollywood couples after tying the knot in 2015.
But while they have split, they co-parent and raise their two young children Iman Tayla, seven, and three-year-old Rue Rose.
Former Big Breakfast presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star Denise Van Outen split from commodities trader Eddie Boxshall after seven years.
The couple started dating in 2014 after one of Van Outen's friends set them up on a blind date, even though she said he looked like Bruce Forsyth after seeing a photo. The 47-year-old presenter told her fans on Instagram in a post in 2021 that she "had to make the difficult decision not to continue in our relationship".
All Elite Wrestling's Miro and CJ Perry - known for their appearances on E! reality show Total Divas from season 6 to 8 - also split after seven years of marriage. The couple first met while working in WWE's developmental brand NXT, where Miro was known as Rusev and Perry as Lana and married in July 2016. Perry confirmed the split, saying: "Miro and I have made the difficult decision to separate after many wonderful years together, and have decided to move on as friends and hopefully on-screen characters somewhere down the road."
Counsellor Georgina Sturmer says while the seven-year itch is probably rooted more in fiction than in fact, it’s certainly the case it’s likely the ‘honeymoon period’ is over at that point. “When we first enter a relationship, we are not always looking at it with the future in mind,” she says. “But after seven years, it’s likely that we are asking ourselves how we feel about this relationship as a permanent fixture in our lives.
“It’s likely that at the seven year point, the honeymoon period will be over. That first flush of romance is when we embrace everything that excites us about a new partner, and sometimes overlook the things that aren’t quite right. As time marches on, any feeling of discontent can become more pronounced and harder to ignore. We might find ourselves feeling bored or dissatisfied. It’s at this point that we might find ourselves at a ‘make or break’ point in our relationship.”
Celebrity Relationship Expert Noor Hibbert believes the seven year itch is a phenomenon that hasn't been scientifically proven. "We see the same thing with in business that in seven years you would want to completely change your business," she explains. "This is because as humans we grow so much over seven years.
"I would say people who are much more career driven are more susceptible to their relationships breaking up. This is because they might not tend to put the effort and time into relationships due to a lot of their focus being on their careers."
But she has some valuable advice on how people can avoid the seven year. "Never stop putting effort into the relationship and take the time to have deep, meaningful conversations, quality and intimate time together and don't let the daily life take you away from the relationship. When we put just as much effort into our relationships and are growing, we can grow with someone in an amazing way, even after a period of seven years.
"We live in a society where we are conditioned to believe that we are to find one person and we're meant to be with that one person to the rest of our lives. And when we aren't with that person for the rest of our lives, then somehow it is a failure. I believe this is one of the biggest myths around relationships, because we do grow and we do change and if we make it to seven years with someone, that's incredible. "