Who is legendary quarterback Peyton Manning’s wife, Ashley Thompson? They married on St Patrick’s Day in 2001, and she’s a mother of twins and a minority owner of NBA team the Memphis Grizzlies

Feb 12, 2025

The quarterback’s quarterback: Ashley Thompson, Peyton Manning’s devoted partner. Photo: Getty Images

Peyton Manning was quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos before retiring in 2016 – but what do we know about wife Ashley Thompson, whom he met before he even started university?

Peyton Manning’s quarterback days may be behind him, but there was a time when he was making headlines at just 17 for being an up-and-coming star in American football.

He not only led his high-school football team to the play-offs every year; he was also named National Player of the Year by Gatorade for 1993–1994, when he was a senior at Isidore Newman School, New Orleans. And he had a name to live up to, since both his father and older brother were football players.

Through his long career in American football, one person never left Manning’s side: Ashley Thompson, whom he met the summer before his first year at the University of Tennessee. “With all her qualities, I think what pleased me most about Ashley, though, was that she liked me for who I was, not what I was,” he admitted in his book, written with his father Archie, Manning: A Father, His Sons and A Football Legacy.