Abby McGrew, also referred to as Abby Manning in some coverage, has been married to former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning since 2008. The only quote attributed to her anywhere in that time comes from a 2016 hospital fundraising announcement.
The silence is easier to notice this year, with so much happening around her. Eli was named a Hall of Fame finalist again in December 2025, then passed over when the 2026 class was revealed in February 2026. His nephew Arch Manning, one of the top Heisman contenders in college football this season, told reporters at SEC media day this summer that he isn’t interested in a media career of his own. Peyton and Eli, meanwhile, host a weekly alternate broadcast, ManningCast, built around talking on air for a living.
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Who is Abby McGrew?
She grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and went to Brentwood Academy. From there she enrolled at the University of Mississippi, joined Kappa Delta’s Alpha Mu chapter, and graduated in 2005 with a degree in family and consumer sciences. They met on campus in the spring of 2002, when Eli was Ole Miss’s starting quarterback and she was a freshman, and started dating that fall.
After graduating, she worked in New York as an account executive for the eveningwear designer Pamella Roland. Nothing in the available record shows her returning to that industry since.
She and Eli got engaged in 2007, after he designed her ring at a jeweler in New Orleans and proposed in Hoboken, New Jersey. They married on April 19, 2008, at the One and Only Palmilla resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. New Orleans Magazine covered the wedding at the time. One detail from that coverage stuck: the resort’s pastry chefs made chocolate replicas of Eli’s Super Bowl ring and handed them to guests on silver trays.
What the record shows: 2006 to 2010
Getty Images has photos of Abby McGrew at nine dated events between 2006 and 2010, though there’s a full year missing from that stretch and more than half of them fall in a single year, 2008:
- A Judith Ripka jewelry event, December 2006
- An Ermenegildo Zegna private dinner, March 2008
- An Ermenegildo Zegna store opening, the same night
- The March of Dimes Beauty Ball, days later that March, alongside Vanessa Williams
- The Met’s Costume Institute Gala, May 2008
- A second Judith Ripka event, November 2008
- A Phoenix House benefit dinner, March 2009
- The AKRIS fashion show and luncheon, May 2009, alongside Lizzie Tisch
- A second Met Gala, May 2010
Her first child, Ava Frances, was born in March 2011. No similar event appears in Getty’s catalogue, or in any other coverage, after that.
What she and Eli Manning have funded
A separate thread runs alongside that one, and it started before the gala appearances stopped, not after. In 2009, while she was still attending events like the ones listed above, she and Eli helped fund a birthing center at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan. The campaign raised $10 million, and the hospital renamed the wing the Eli and Abby Manning Birthing Center. In 2010, they gave $1 million to Ole Miss Opportunity, a need-based scholarship fund at their old school.
In 2016, they pledged another $1 million to Children’s of Mississippi’s capital campaign and were named honorary chairs. That announcement is where the one quote comes from: “Every mother wants her children to have what they need, and when they need medical care, they want that care to be compassionate and to be available nearby. This is why Children’s of Mississippi means so much to our family.”
The donation record continues past 2010. The appearance record does not.
A loud year for the rest of the family
Eli is a regular presence at MetLife Stadium these days. The Giants retired his number 10 jersey and inducted him into their Ring of Honor in 2021, a ceremony that came with an ongoing role at the club, and his Hall of Fame case has been debated by sports columnists for two years running. ManningCast is still airing. Arch Manning’s name comes up in college football coverage most weeks of the season.
Ava turned 15 this spring. Lucy is 13, Caroline is 11, and Charlie, born on Super Bowl Sunday in 2019, is 7. None of what’s happened around the family this year includes anything new from their mother.
