Alex Rodriguez, perhaps better known as A-Rod, and his ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis not only share two daughters, they also share a fairly contentious history. Though both have now moved on since their 2008 divorce, there are still some nasty allegations that have been made by both sides in the years since. Gossip Cop takes a closer look at their relationship to discover just why things got so bad and where the exes stand now, especially when it comes to co-parenting their daughters.
Why Alex Rodriguez And Cynthia Scurtis Divorced
The former spouses met, fittingly enough, at the gym. According to the New York Post, Rodriguez spotted the then high school teacher on the Stairmaster and chatted her up. The two eventually became a couple and in 2002, the pair got married. Two years after that, Rodriguez and Scurtis welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Natasha. In 2008, the couple had a second daughter, named Ella.
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A few months after their second daughter’s birth, however, Scurtis filed for divorce, listing “extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct” as her reason for wanting to leave the marriage. A year earlier, Rodriguez had been photographed with a woman later identified as a former stripper, earning the former Yankees star the nickname “Stray Rod” from the New York Post. Then, a few days before the couple’s divorce, tabloid stories about Madonna and Rodriguez hanging out late at night in a hotel began to spread.
Madonna denied the rumors of a romance between herself and Rodriguez, releasing a statement that read, via ESPN, “My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce. I know Alex Rodriguez through Guy Oseary, who manages both of us. I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez.” Of course, Madonna and her then-husband, Guy Ritchie, divorced a few months later in the fall. Though Rodriguez didn’t comment on the allegations of infidelity at the time, his attorney made the former Yankee’s stance on the issue very clear, stating “As you know, anyone can pay the filing fee and make allegations.”
Despite this messy start to their divorce, the two’s main focus remained their two children. Soon after the news of the divorce broke, Rodriguez’s spokesperson stated that Rodriguez’s “priorities are to have a future with his children and be a big part of their lives.” That much has come true, though there have been some disagreements between the co-parents in the years since their divorce.
Rodriguez And Scurtis’ Child Support Fight
In 2017, Alex Rodriguez began dating Jennifer Lopez, to whom he’s now engaged. A year later, Rodriguez requested a decrease in the amount of money he pays in child support on a monthly basis, which was reported by TMZ. The figure had previously been about $115,000 a month for Natasha and Ella, but now Rodriguez wanted that amount drastically cut. Instead of the six-figure amount he had been sending, Rodriguez was now requesting the amount be lowered to about $20,000, plus expenses like tuition for their school.
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The father of two felt this figure was more than fair since he was no longer a member of the MLB and didn’t pull in an estimated $30 million a year as a result. His team also argued that the new amount was more than enough to pay for the girls’ needs, which they figured totaled between $7,000 and $12,000 a month. Sources close to the situation also informed the outlet that Rodriguez felt that his ex-wife was already plenty rich herself after all those years of child support payments.
The source pointed to Scurtis’ multiple cars and three homes, not to mention the alleged millions she had in the bank, as evidence. Rodriguez was especially frustrated since Scurtis had since gotten engaged herself and had welcomed a child with her new fiance, leaving the former Yankees player feeling as if he was bankrolling her new family.
That same year, Jennifer Lopez apparently attended one of the mediation sessions between Rodriguez and Scurtis, which did not endear her to Rodriguez’s ex-wife. In a fairly rare move, since she had always been publicly courteous to her ex-husband’s new partner, Scurtis agreed to speak with The Post and said about the new child support demands, via PageSix, “All I can tell you, there’s been a shift, and I’m not sure what to attribute it to. Alex has dated some wonderful women since our divorce, many of whom have had positive relationships with our children.”
Scurtis continued, “Alex and I have worked well trying to create a stable environment for our daughters and there has never been an issue. Until now.” Still, determined to co-parent their children peacefully, the former couple, as well as Lopez, seemingly put the incident behind them and worked toward a conclusion. The ex-spouses often team up for family events, like eldest daughter Natasha’s middle school graduation.
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A-Rod And Scurtis’ Tabloid Scandals
Naturally, the tabloids have reported that all is not well between exes, and Jennifer Lopez is usually at the center of it all. Take, for example, an article out of the National Enquirer published in the summer of 2018 which claimed that Cynthia Scurtis was “furious” over the news of Alex Rodriguez and Lopez’s engagement. Scurtis supposedly “freaked out after hearing Alex popped the question,” and was determined to get her revenge. “She wants to bury him in any way she can and remind the world of what he’s really like,” a so-called “source” told the outlet.
“J.Lo has seriously helped to boost his reputation in a positive way. But now Cynthia is going to try and tear him down.” The only problem with that story was, Lopez and Rodriguez weren’t engaged yet. Though they’ve since gotten engaged, that wasn’t until March of 2019. And even after Rodriguez and Lopez got engaged, there’s been no attempt from Scurtis to “tear” Rodriguez down. That would certainly throw a monkey wrench in the pair’s attempts to co-parent peacefully.
That wasn’t the only time Lopez and Scurtis clashed, according to the Globe. The disreputable outlet insisted this past May that the feud between Cynthia Scurtis and Jennifer Lopez was heating up. Though the two seemed to be all smiles with each other, behind the scenes the atmosphere was much more tense. “There is a lot of tension between the two women, with Alex constantly trying to soothe it,” a questionable tipster told the magazine.
Scurtis was allegedly “livid at the way J.Lo acts all chummy with their daughters, buying them perfumes, makeup, and designer clothes like she’s trying to buy their love.” Of course no one with any real knowledge of how things were between Lopez and Scurtis would ever talk to an outlet as untrustworthy as the Globe. Gossip Cop spoke with our own source, who confirmed our suspicions that the story was totally false.
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Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are two of the most famous stars of their respective fields, so of course there’s interest in their relationships, both past and present. Their non-traditional modern family also puzzles the tabloids, which is why there are so many rumors of so-called “feuds” plaguing their family. Hopefully the pair choose to focus on the positives in their lives rather than the negative narratives that appear again and again in the supermarket gossip rags.