Payton met Beth Shuey, an Indiana State University graduate while coaching there. The couple had two children, daughter Meghan (born 1997) and son Connor (born 2000). Payton is Irish Catholic. Payton and his family moved to a home in Mandeville, Louisiana when he became the Saints' head coach. The home, like many built on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, later turned out to be constructed with defective Chinese drywall, and Payton eventually became a named plaintiff in a widely reported class action lawsuit against the manufacturer, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd.