Lauren Kyle McDavid was not shy about revealing more details about her husband’s strange affliction to ketchup.
Connor McDavid is a fairly private person, and not much is known about his personal life off the ice. That is to be expected of one of the NHL’s best players, who is constantly under the spotlight in a hockey-crazed city like Edmonton.
McDavid married Kyle in a beautiful lakeside ceremony in Ontario in the summer of 2024. That came after just under a decade together as the couple started dating during McDavid’s rookie season in 2015. Since then, fans have been clamouring to get a look into the private lives of the McDavids.
Luckily, fans got just that this week as Lauren was a guest on the Never Offside podcast hosted by Julie Petry, wife of former Oilers defenceman Jeff Petry, and Cat Toffoli, wife of NHLer Tyler Toffoli.
The most interesting part of the interview focused on one of McDavid’s strangest quirks.
McDavid made headlines in an unusual way last season for his apparent fear of ketchup. The Oilers superstar apparently hates the condiment and refuses to touch a bottle of the stuff.
The internet, of course, had a field day with this information, with some rival fans dressing up as ketchup and going to Oilers games. Even Heinz got in on the fun, poking fun at McDavid with a social media post.
Lauren said that McDavid is aware of all the memes about his peculiar phobia and actually finds it funny. It hasn’t, however, helped him get over it.
“He’s never even tried it, to be honest,” Lauren said. “If I’m having it with a meal, I have to get it from the fridge; he will not put it back in the fridge or touch the bottle. It has to be at the other end.
“He’s seen [the fans dressing up as ketchup], and I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry I exposed you on that show’… He does think it’s funny, and he’s still afraid of ketchup; he won’t have it.”
Not liking ketchup is one thing, but not even touching the bottle seems to move this over into the range of a legitimate phobia. It isn’t just McDavid who has this aversion to ketchup, as it also affects his brother, Cameron McDavid.
Both Cat and Julie wondered how this works at the rink, to which Lauren said she didn’t know, but they must make sure the ketchup stays away from McDavid.
That wasn’t the only thing that Lauren dished on about her superstar husband. She also revealed that McDavid has become quite the chess player over the past year, often playing it on his phone. The couple are also huge fans of the reality TV series Survivor, and even dressed up as contestants for Halloween in 2023.
While some might point to Canada’s love of ketchup chips as a mark of national pride, McDavid will not be repping that when he plays for the country at the Olympics in the new year.
