Troy Aikman and his girlfriend, Marisa Howard, had a romantic dinner for her birthday at Catch Dallas, as seen in a photo she shared to her Instagram Story on Sunday.
“Best night,” Howard, 40, wrote, including a snapshot of the former Cowboys quarterback turned NFL analyst with his arm around her at the upscale restaurant.
Aikman — who’s in the final year of his five-year deal with ESPN in the network’s No. 1 NFL booth — reposted the image to his Instagram Story.
The 59-year-old Aikman shared more photos of the two in another post captioned, “Happy Birthday Beautiful❤️”.
Howard is a mom, yogi and children’s book author, according to her Instagram bio and LinkedIn.
Aikman made their relationship public when he shared photos of them during a trip to Croatia with his daughters, Alexa and Jordan, in June.
Their relationship was first reported by D Magazine in June 2025, which said they were spotted taking hot yoga classes together at Ritual One in Dallas.
At the time, the outlet reported that Howard was still legally married after she filed for divorce from her ex, Frank Howard Jr. in Dallas in July 2024.
Howard reportedly worked as the director of communications and media her ex’s company, GeneIQ, a molecular diagnostic testing laboratory serving corporations, long-term care facilities, physician practices, state and local governments, small businesses, and others.
Howard and her ex have two daughters together.
Howard was a model and worked in fashion for Neiman Marcus, JCPenney, SkinCeuticals, Stanley Korshak and American Airlines, according to People Newspapers, a sister publication of D Magazine. She also has a certification in yoga.
Aikman’s two daughters are from his first marriage to former Cowboys publicist Rhonda Worthey. They announced their split in January 2011 after a decade of marriage.
His second divorce with Catherine “Capa” Mooty, whom he married in 2017, was finalized in July 2023, according to People.
In a May 2025 interview, Aikman told The Athletic that his divorce from Mooty was “my rock bottom.”
Aikman’s future with ESPN is uncertain with his contract set to expire after him and play-by-play announcer Joe call Super Bowl 2027 for the Worldwide Leader.
During a Sept. 20 interview on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast, Aikman explained that he thought he would’ve had a new contract done — and he hadn’t heard from ESPN at that point.
Buck signed a six-year contract extension with ESPN worth more than $100 million last month to continue in the booth on “Monday Night Football.”
