Peyton Manning adopted 8-year-old girl named Lily?
Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning adopted an 8-year-old girl named Lily after her parents died in a car accident.
A rumor that circulated online in June 2025 claimed five-time NFL Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning adopted an 8-year-old girl named Lily after her parents died in a car accident. According to the story, 10 years had passed since the adoption, with Manning and the now-18-year-old woman sharing their story at a charity event.
For example, on June 10, the Magic Clement Facebook page posted (archived) the story. The post, which received more than 396,000 reactions and 50,000 shares by the time of this writing, allegedly showed before-and-after pictures of Manning, who retired from the NFL in 2016, posing with the child at 8 and 18 years old. The story’s headline read, “Peyton Manning Adopted Her at 8—10 Years Later, She Stood Beside Him With a Truth No One Knew.”
(Magic Clement/Facebook)
Another Facebook post (archived) promoting the story also received more than 125,000 reactions and thousands of shares, showing the virality of the rumor. Users shared the same claim on Instagram (archived), X (archived) and possibly other social media platforms. Additionally, Snopes readers emailed us to ask whether the rumor was true.
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting about Manning adopting a child named Lily or Emily — another name that appeared in Google suggestions for the search terms “Peyton Manning adopted daughter.” Rather, the entire story was one of the hundreds of fabricated stories about Manning performing inspiring acts of kindness that appeared on the Magic Clement Facebook page. As we’ll lay out later in this article, the story about Manning adopting an 8-year-old girl amounted to fiction.
An examination of the Magic Clement page’s stories found multiple indications of artificial intelligence-generated images and text. For example, in the side-by-side pictures of Manning and Lily, the Sightengine AI-detection website found a 99% probability that someone “likely” generated the images with AI. In both photos, Manning’s jaw displayed an underbite not exhibited by the real Manning. The pictures also showed an unnaturally shiny and smooth appearance — one of many signs of potentially AI-generated images.
Snopes previously contacted a manager of the Magic Clement Facebook page to ask about their usage of AI for images and text. Via Messenger, they responded, “I sometimes use writing tools to help structure or enhance storytelling, but the intention is always to capture the spirit and character of the individuals involved — not to mislead. The focus is on inspiration and positive values, especially when it comes to well-respected figures like Peyton Manning.” They also said, regarding a different fabricated story about Manning calming a crying baby on a flight, “It was posted in the spirit of admiration for Peyton Manning’s character, but I fully acknowledge that it may be apocryphal.”
These stories all very much resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as “stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental.”
According to People.com, Manning’s wife, Ashley Thompson Manning, gave birth to two fraternal twins, son Marshall and daughter Mosley, in March 2011. The article’s author made no mention of the Mannings adopting any children.
Full text of the fictional story
The Magic Clement Facebook page posted the fake story of Manning’s adoption of the girl as follows:
Peyton Manning Adopted Her at 8—10 Years Later, She Stood Beside Him With a Truth No One Knew
At 8 years old, Lily had already learned too much about loss.
Her parents had died in a car accident. She bounced from home to home—never staying long enough to unpack all her things.
She stopped asking questions.
Stopped hoping.Until one day, a man walked into the group home—not in a suit, not with cameras.
Just jeans, a soft smile, and kind eyes.It was Peyton Manning.
She didn’t know who he was.
He introduced himself simply:
“Hi, I’m Peyton. And I heard you love football and pancakes.”
She blinked. Nodded slowly.
He knelt down to her level.
“Would it be okay if I came by again? Maybe next Sunday?”
He did.
Then the Sunday after that.
Then one day—he didn’t just visit.
He brought papers.
And asked:“Would it be okay if I became your dad?”
Lily was stunned. Scared. But somehow… safe.
Over the next decade, she didn’t grow up in stadium lights—she grew up in backyards.
With waffles on Saturdays.
Study sessions.
Bike rides.
Bedtime pep talks.She got the full Peyton Manning experience.
Not the quarterback.
But the man.He never asked her to be anyone but herself.
He never introduced her to the world as “his adopted daughter.”
Only:“This is Lily. My girl.”
Ten years later—Lily stood beside him at a charity event.
Now 18. Beautiful. Fierce. Proud.
Someone in the crowd shouted, “You’re lucky to be raised by a legend!”
She smiled.
Then leaned into the mic:
“He’s not the legend because he played football.
He’s a legend because when no one else chose me—he did.
And he never once made me feel like second choice.”
Peyton looked down, eyes full.
Because even after all the touchdowns…
That?
That was the biggest win of his life.
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on another story claiming Manning refused to laugh at a cruel talk show joke about a person living with obesity.
