Stephanie Sarkisian: Steve Sarkisian's First Wife, Verified

Stephanie Sarkisian is the first wife of Steve Sarkisian, now the Texas Longhorns head coach. The two married in 1997, raised three children, and filed for divorce on April 20, 2015, in Los Angeles County Superior Court. And because a second wife entered the picture years later, the search results blend two different marriages into one. This page sorts Stephanie Sarkisian's file the way the court documents order it: one marriage, one filing, three children.

The distinction matters more than gossip gives it credit for. Loreal Sarkisian is the second wife, married in 2020, and the mother of the coach's youngest child. Stephanie Sarkisian is the mother of Taylor, Ashley, and Brady. Search-engine blends keep mixing the two marriages, and the dated records below separate them.

The 1997 Marriage and the Assistant-Coach Years

The marriage predates the head-coach spotlight. Larry Brown Sports put the wedding year at 1997, just before Sarkisian's Canadian Football League stint in Saskatchewan. From there the coaching ladder ran through Fresno State, USC's assistant ranks, and the Oakland Raiders. Through all of it, Stephanie stayed off the record entirely. The marriage carried no joint interviews, no red-carpet file, and no public family brand.

That privacy held for nearly two decades, from the CFL years to the USC press conferences. Profiles at Briefly describe the marriage as stretching from 1997 until 2015. Fanbuzz's later rundown put the length at close to 20 years. Both count the same way roughly. The household grew up alongside a climbing coaching resume. None of the growth turned into publicity.

Three Children and a Joint Statement

The children of Stephanie Sarkisian repeat across every serious account. Taylor, Ashley, and Brady entered the family during the marriage years. At the time of the April filing, per Fanbuzz, all three were 12 years old or younger. Stephanie Sarkisian raised all three beside the coaching calendar. And no named outlet has ever printed an interview with her about it.

The parents' joint statement at the filing kept the frame civil. The statement, quoted in the court-document coverage, opens with a desire to protect the privacy of their children and each other. It closes with a goal of raising the children as caring and loving parents. Nothing in the filings or the named coverage argues with that tone.

The third child kept the family in the spotlight on his own terms later. Per KVUE's April 4, 2025 report, Brady Sarkisian joined the Texas Longhorns as a linebacker. Yahoo Sports and Sports Illustrated carried the same roster news. So the youngest child of the first marriage now plays for the program his father leads. The 2025 roster coverage gave the football family its newest dated line.

The April 20, 2015 Filing and the Same-Fall Collapse

The filing date is a court-document record. TMZ Sports reported the paperwork on April 28, 2015: Stephanie Sarkisian filed April 20, 2015, citing irreconcilable differences. Fox Sports followed the same Stephanie Sarkisian documents in early May. The LA Times confirmed the process through USC the same week, crediting SB Nation's Conquest Chronicles as the first report.

The finalization took another court season. Per TMZ-era reporting referenced by Fanbuzz, the divorce finalized toward November 2016. People's 2025 family background ran the same line: divorced in 2016. The settlement coverage kept terms quiet, though the same rundown reported no spousal support and no child support moves.

The same autumn of 2015 carried the job news. Sarkisian took a leave of absence at USC on October 11, 2015, and was fired October 12. Those two timelines sit side by side in the record, and they stay side by side here. The filing documented its reasons as irreconcilable differences, and no public detail goes past that line on either household.

Loreal Sarkisian Is a Different Chapter

The second wife carries her own public story. Loreal Smith married Sarkisian in 2020, while he worked on Alabama's staff, per the Austin American-Statesman. Her public file covers a stylist career and her former collegiate track background. Texas circles know her as the First Lady of Texas Longhorns Football, the phrase outlets used throughout her sideline years. Her file includes public interviews, game-day presence, and a branded wardrobe career.

Her timeline runs in the other direction after 2024. The Statesman reported a joint divorce filing in July 2024, described by both sides as amicable. Heavy's September 2026 coverage carried the reconciliation. And in April 2025, the couple announced the birth of their son through Loreal's Instagram. Sports Illustrated put the name Amays in its July 2025 coverage.

So the households do not blend. Stephanie Sarkisian's three children were raised in the 1997-to-2016 chapter. Loreal's chapter starts in 2020 and holds the youngest child. A search-engine blend assigns the three older children to the wrong mother, or calls Loreal a former wife of the first marriage. Both errors fail against the dated records above.

The Name Variants to Watch

Two fabricated variants float beside her name and both come from junk pages. One claims the first wife's name is Alexis Sarkisian, married in 1999 and filed against in 2018. Court-document journalism, the TMZ paperwork above, never supports it. The other invents a wife named Laurel and a divorce finalization in 2015. Every internal date in that version contradicts the real filing. Neither page survives a two-source check, and neither prints here.

The softer variants fail the same test. Template pages list a July 12, 1974, birth date and a Los Angeles birthplace for Stephanie. No primary record backs either row. A maiden-name claim of Yamamoto circulates on the same template network. So this page prints no age row, no birthplace row, and no family-origin row. No verified figure exists for any of them. The Stephanie Sarkisian file here prints none of the invented rows.

Where Stephanie Sarkisian Stands Today

For Stephanie Sarkisian, the public record ends where the 2016 finalization did. No named-interview exists. No verified profession, residence, or remarriage record appears in any outlet this pass found. What remains verified are the family rows. Married 1997. Filed April 20, 2015. Finalized 2016. And three children whose lineage prints on the roster records. The privacy statement she co-signed in 2015 has held up across a decade of coverage. That is the strongest outcome any private file can print.

The son's roster line 2025 hints the chapter is worth following. Longhorn fans will keep tracking Brady Sarkisian through the 2026 seasons, and his mother stays fully outside that coverage by design.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Stephanie Sarkisian?

She is Stephanie Sarkisian, the first wife of Steve Sarkisian, married in 1997 and the mother of his three older children.

When did Stephanie and Steve Sarkisian marry?

1997, shortly before his coaching stint in Saskatchewan with the CFL, per Larry Brown Sports.

When did the divorce file and finalize?

The filing came April 20, 2015, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and the divorce finalized in 2016.

How many children does Stephanie Sarkisian have?

Three: Taylor, Ashley, and Brady Sarkisian, all 12 or younger at the 2015 filing.

Is Loreal Sarkisian the same person as Stephanie?

No. Loreal Sarkisian is the second wife, married in 2020, and the mother of their son born in 2025.

Where is Stephanie Sarkisian now?

Not publicly documented. She has given no interviews, and no verified record covers her profession or residence.

Conclusion

The Stephanie Sarkisian file is a court-record story that never needed a tabloid layer. A 1997 marriage that spanned nearly two decades. Three children named Taylor, Ashley, and Brady. An April 20, 2015 filing under irreconcilable differences, and a 2016 finalization on quiet terms. The second-marriage story belongs to Loreal Sarkisian. The two chapters now sit clean of each other. On verification the page holds 4 of 5 rows filled. The missing row is her own voice, kept out by her own choice since 2015.

Related reading: The coach's full career record continues in Steve Sarkisian, the live page this file branches from. The first-wife filing pattern reads again in Delores Nowzaradan. And the wrestling-side version of a public ex-wife story sits in Dana Lee Burgio.