A-Rod’s wife files for divorce

By Alfonso A. Castillo
Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
Published: July 8, 2008

NEW YORK—It is high—the likely cost of alimony, that is.

It is far. The setting of a divorce trial would be about 1,300 miles from Yankee Stadium.

It is gone—that’s essentially what Cynthia Rodriguez said about the hopes of salvaging her fractured marriage with Alex Rodriguez as she filed for divorce from the New York Yankees slugger Monday morning.

After weeks of speculation and innuendo of an affair between A-Rod, 34, and Madonna, Cynthia Rodriguez filed a petition for the dissolution of her six-year marriage in a Miami-Dade County circuit court Monday, after having “exhausted every effort to salvage the marriage,” according to court papers.

“Alex has emotionally abandoned his wife and children and has left her with no choice but to divorce him,” Cynthia Rodriguez’s attorneys said in the filing.

In it, Cynthia Rodriguez’s attorneys say the bonds between the two are “irretrievably broken because of the husband’s extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct.”

A-Rod’s rumored philandering has been the source of controversy since the third baseman was spotted with a Las Vegas exotic dancer at a Toronto strip club last year. More recently, he has been linked with the “Material Girl.”

Madonna released a statement Sunday in which she denied being romantically involved with Rodriguez.

Alex Rodriguez’s divorce attorney, Ira Elegant of Miami, did not return calls for comment. Neither did Cynthia’s attorneys, Maurice Kutner of Miami and Earle Lilly of Houston.

Elegant told The Miami Herald on Monday there was no advantage for Cynthia Rodriguez in filing first and added, “We’ll see where the case takes us when you get past the emotional issues.”

Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez were married in November 2002 when A-Rod was playing for the Texas Rangers. The couple have two daughters together.

Although they did not specify any figures, Cynthia Rodriguez’s attorneys wrote in the filing that she is also seeking child support and alimony and noted that Alex Rodriguez “is well able to pay all forms of alimony.”

There are several potential reasons Cynthia Rodriguez chose to file for divorce in Miami rather than New York or Texas, where the estranged couple also own homes, matrimonial attorneys said.

One reason a Florida courtroom might be more appealing than one in New York is that New York is one of the few states without no-fault divorce—meaning that couples are required to prove grounds for a divorce. A no-fault system not only speeds the process along, but makes it less ugly, Miami divorce attorney Charlotte Kaplan said.

“The scandalous type of issues like what’s going on in New York, that doesn’t happen here,” said Kaplan, referring to the ongoing angry Long Island trial between Christie Brinkley and her estranged husband, Peter Cook. “To get a divorce here you just look at a judge and say, I don’t love him.’”