Before Olivia Ponton, there was Olivia Holzmacher: inside Joe Burrow’s seven-year love story that began at Ohio State

Joe Burrow's love life has become a regular topic since reports linked him to model Olivia Ponton in December 2024. Before that, though, the Bengals quarterback spent about seven years with Olivia Holzmacher, a relationship that started at Ohio State in 2017. They stayed together through his move to LSU, a Heisman Trophy and an NFL career, then split quietly in 2024. Neither has explained why. Neither has said much at all, which is part of how this story took off. Fans filled the silence themselves. Here's what is actually on the record.Joe Burrow's seven-year relationship with Olivia Holzmacher began at Ohio StateBurrow enrolled at Ohio State in 2015 and did not join the football team until 2016. Even then he spent two years as a backup. Holzmacher came into the picture in August 2017, right in the middle of that wait. The relationship was already running before anyone outside Columbus cared much about him.Then he left. Burrow graduated in 2018 with a degree in consumer and family financial services and transferred to LSU, which meant Baton Rouge instead of Columbus. They kept dating from a distance. Holzmacher made the trip often to watch him play.Those trips lined up with the best stretch of his football life. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2019, then the national title in January 2020. Not many long-distance couples get a run like that to share.The pattern held after the Cincinnati Bengals drafted him. Holzmacher was often seen cheering from his private suite at Paycor Stadium. Engagement talk came up in 2023 and again in 2024, and it never went anywhere official. No announcement came from either of them.The split was just as quiet. It is still unclear exactly when it happened, and neither side has addressed it. Sports Illustrated noted that fans began wondering after the two had not been seen together in public since January 2024. The silence did the rest.How the Olivia Ponton reports beganThe Ponton story started with a break-in. On Monday, December 9, 2024, Burrow's home was broken into while he was in Dallas for a game. A police report said Ponton arrived at the house, found a broken window and a ransacked bedroom, and called 911. The same report listed her as Burrow's employee. That wording raised eyebrows, though it proved nothing about what they were to each other.A source told People the two had been hooking up since the fall and were keeping it casual. That is about as close as the public has gotten to an explanation, and it came from an unnamed person, not from Burrow or Ponton.They showed up in the same places in 2025. Paparazzi video from the Miami Grand Prix on May 4 showed them leaving events in the same van more than once. The next day Burrow made his Met Gala debut. Ponton did not walk the carpet with him, but both were seen at after-parties that night. Reporters asked her about Burrow. She kept her head down.Ponton, now 24, is a model who made her Sports Illustrated debut in 2022 and has worked with brands like Calvin Klein and Skims. She has a large online following, yet she has stayed quiet about Burrow.The public record is lopsided. One side is seven years of football seasons, road trips and suite seats. The other is a police report, a source's comment and a few paparazzi clips, and no word from Burrow or Ponton.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.