NFL Insider Ian Rapoport met his wife Leah at a sports bar in 2006.
He was early in his career, reporting on Mississippi State University football, and she was a student at the SEC school.
Ian reflected on their first meeting in a 2017 interview with Columbia College Today, explaining that there was “a lot to like in Starkville” in 2006 because it was “where I met the woman who would become my wife.” Three years after Ian and Leah first met, they married in Birmingham, Ala. They have since welcomed two sons together: Max and Jude.
While Ian is often busy reporting on breaking NFL news, he makes time to spend with his loved ones. He shared a few photos on Instagram of his family of four on a trip to Massachusetts in the summer of 2024. In the caption, he reminisced on how much fun they had together.
So, who is Ian Rapoport’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Leah Rapoport and her relationship with the NFL reporter.
She graduated from Mississippi State University
Leah graduated from Mississippi State University in 2006 with a degree in banking and finance, per her LinkedIn.
One year after her graduation, Leah joined Regions Bank, where she was part of the management associate program. By October 2007, Leah was promoted to assistant branch manager and later became a branch manager until she left the bank in October 2009.
Leah was a Starbucks manager
During her college career, Leah also managed a local coffee shop, which prepared her for her later work as a store manager for varying Starbucks. Leah managed stores in Dallas, Massachusetts and New York for almost a decade, per her LinkedIn.
She began as a manager in January 2010 before finishing her career in the coffee industry in June 2019.
They met at a sports bar in 2006
Ian and Leah first crossed paths while he was reporting on Mississippi State football for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger and she was attending college. They met at The Grill sports bar in Starkville, Miss., in 2006.
They told the New York Post in August 2022 that Leah was visiting her bartender friend when she ran into Ian, who was there with a mutual friend. The pair started dating almost immediately after meeting.
Leah is supportive of Ian’s career
The nature of Ian’s career can be unpredictable at times, but Leah has remained his No. 1 supporter. During her college graduation party in 2006, major NFL news hit — which meant Ian needed to work.
“He spent the entire graduation party outside on the phone,” Leah told the New York Post in August 2022. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is slightly annoying.’ But it was sort of like, ‘What can you do?’ I’m not gonna be mad at him for being on the phone for work. These sources don’t work from 9 to 5.”
Leah realized then that “this is how it’s gonna be” with Ian’s career. She also told the New York Post that her husband has to occasionally miss out on dinner with the family to attend to work, though his absence at the table ultimately “makes no difference” in her love for her husband.
“I literally don’t care. Dinner is not some sacred right. It’s … food,” she quipped, adding that she encourages Ian to “do what you need to do and come back, it’s fine.”
They married in 2009
After dating for three years, Ian and Leah tied the knot on May 9, 2009, in Birmingham, Ala. To commemorate their 11th wedding anniversary, the football reporter shared a few pictures from their special day on Instagram accompanied by a heartfelt caption, joking their union was “one of the unlikeliest weddings imaginable.”
“This New York writer had somehow convinced a smart, funny, beautiful Mississippi girl to marry me and I wanted everyone to witness it (so they would believe me),” Ian wrote. “But every vow I uttered that night — and every thought I had throughout that indelible celebration — has only gotten stronger.”
They share two sons
In June 2013, Leah and Ian welcomed their first son, Max. Two years later, they expanded their family with the birth of their second son, Jude, in March 2015.
While his social media accounts are mostly used to share work-related content, Ian occasionally posts updates about his boys, including a June 2024 post on Instagram to celebrate Max’s 11th birthday.
“For his 11th birthday, he wanted to be slimed and to slime his friends. Mission accomplished,” Ian wrote underneath a video of his elder son getting slimed, Nickelodeon-style.
Max and Jude have also been involved in their dad’s career. In 2018, both Leah and Ian’s sons made an appearance on Good Morning Football to wish viewers a Happy Thanksgiving and were “hamming it up for the camera,” as their dad wrote on Facebook.
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