ESPN reporter Laura Rutledge is known for her work as a reporter, her title as a former Miss Florida, and her marriage to former baseball player Josh Rutledge. While other achievements came with her pushing for the best, marriage required her to go a little extra. She had to take the bold step of sparking the fires of love with her husband.

“It was 2011, Twitter was new,” Rutledge said on The Pivot Podcast. “I slid into his DMs on Twitter. I was the one shooting. ‘Okay, I want him. I’m gonna take my shot. Oh, I’m sending a message.’ I probably thought I was tweeting publicly at him. We were doing all these different acronyms.

“And later, he told me, ‘I didn’t know what you were saying. So, I had my boy helping me trying to translate it and tell me what to say. So, later on, I was like, ‘Okay, so I thought you were this clever guy. Apparently, it was just your friend who I was talking to.”

Before the Twitter message, the pair met in 2011 at a random football tailgate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was at the Alabama vs. LSU Game of the Century, where Laura was present as a reporter for FOX. As she moved around, someone soon led her to the tailgate, which was the “Alabama baseball tailgate.”

She was initially uninterested, unwilling to be in such a place with drunk baseball players. Little did she know that fate had something more for her. At the sight of Josh, she was captivated, awed by his striking resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio. But then she was immediately turned off when she realized he was a baseball player.

Years later, Rutledge would admit that her connection to Josh also came with the emotional highs and lows that follow professional athletes. During an appearance on the Marchand Sports Media podcast, she revealed she once created a fake Twitter account to defend her husband from criticism online while he was in pro baseball.

“BillyHalo only tweeted positive things about Josh Rutledge and then the occasional Mike Trout tweet, because I was like, ‘Shoot, someone’s gonna figure this out,’” she said jokingly.

That did not stop them from having a discussion regardless.

The discussion started quite well, even if she admitted that “he’s striking, but he’s shy, and he disarms you a little bit because he’s so shy.” As it went on, there was an awkward interruption: Josh farted. It was an embarrassing situation that they both turned into an interesting joke. And what would have seemed like a turn-off to many was Laura’s main attraction to Josh.

“I’m interested in this guy. If I can do a fart joke, I might be known. So, we hung out that night.”

What followed this was her texting him on Twitter after a while. And they both began dating not too long after their linkup. Two years later, they got married in December 2013.

Rutledge has often described Josh as one of her biggest supporters, especially while balancing motherhood and a demanding television career. After retiring from baseball, Josh transitioned into business and finance while remaining closely involved in her professional journey. Laura once even revealed that he helped her pick outfits for broadcasts, with Josh later joking on Instagram that he “nailed it.”

Today, the marriage has produced a daughter, Reese, born in October 2019, and a son, Jack, born in May 2023.

Laura Rutledge suspended her career after marriage

Laura’s commitment to her marriage is unquestionable, as evidenced by the countless sacrifices she has made for it. Despite having a decent career in her early years in broadcasting, Laura was quick to put it on hold for her marriage.

“It’s so funny because when we met and when we got married, I was like, ‘I’m gonna be a baseball wife.’ That’s I’m gonna do,” said Rutledge during her Saturday appearance on The Pivot Podcast. “And I had a good job at the time. I worked for Fox Sports San Diego, covering the Padres, and they were in the same division as the Rockies. And I’m like, ‘I’m not covering the team that you’re going to be playing. Like, that’s just weird.

“I want to support you, so I quit that job. I gave that job up. And I mean, it was good for a 25-year-old. I was making good money. I was living in San Diego. I was loving it. And all of a sudden, it was kind of all gone. And I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to fully commit to him.’ We got a dog; like, we’re not ready for kids yet.”

But the arrangement did not last very long. Rutledge later admitted that staying away from work left both her and Josh realizing that broadcasting remained a major part of her identity.

“I did it for probably, I don’t know, let’s call it eight months or so maybe less, and he was like, ‘You need to go back to work,’” she recalled. “Because I was driving him crazy, and I was driving myself crazy because I realized I just have to do more.”

She added that Josh ultimately became the person encouraging her to pursue both family life and her career instead of sacrificing one entirely.

“As much as I loved him and I wanted to be there for him, he realized, like, she needs to do what she loves too. And maybe it is possible to do both,” Rutledge said.

After eight months, Laura was “driving him crazy,” and they both agreed that she should resume her career. And now, she is the sideline reporter for the Monday Night Football crew, alongside Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, and Lisa Salters. She also remains a major face during ESPN’s coverage for the NFL Draft, the CFP, and The Masters.

Ahead of the 2025 NFL season, ESPN officially expanded her responsibilities on Monday Night Football, announcing that Rutledge would continue working alongside Lisa Salters as part of the network’s sideline reporting team.

Her rise at ESPN has coincided with fans increasingly viewing her as one of the network’s most versatile personalities. In March 2025, Josh Rutledge surprised fans online after revealing that Laura had officiated a wedding as an ordained minister during a trip to Orlando.

“I’m married to an ordained minister NBD,” Josh joked in an Instagram caption while sharing photos from the ceremony. The post quickly drew reactions from fans stunned by yet another unexpected addition to Rutledge’s résumé.

Despite her demanding schedule, Rutledge has also been open about the challenges of motherhood during her broadcasting rise. She previously admitted fearing that having children could slow the professional momentum she had built at ESPN, though she returned to work shortly after the birth of her daughter Reese in 2019 and continued taking on larger NFL and college football roles afterward.