McDowell comes from a mixed Catholic/Protestant family background, but was himself raised a Protestant. As he won the U.S. Open in 2010 he was living in a "bachelor pad" penthouse apartment in Portrush and was building a home in Lake Nona, Florida, United States. McDowell hired interior designer Kristin Stape to work on his Lake Nona house: subsequently the pair began dating and were engaged in October 2012. The couple married in a small ceremony in the Bahamas in September 2013. Kristin gave birth to the couple's first child, a girl, in August 2014. She has a child from a previous relationship.