Alex Rodriguez leaves his Park Ave. home before heading to the Yankees game against the Red Sox at the Stadium on Sunday night. He and his wife are expected to file for divorce on Monday in Miami
Cynthia Rodriguez greets her personal trainer, Dodd Romero, after leaving a Coral Gables, Fla., gym
Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and his estranged wife, Cynthia, will both file for divorce Monday with she blaming their busted marriage on his "long period of infidelity" and he citing her reluctance to reconcile.
The couple will send their high-priced legal teams racing to a family court in Miami this morning to fire the first shots in what is expected to be an ugly fight, the Daily News has learned. The nasty battle will boil down to custody of their two children, the youngest just 11 weeks old, and A-Rod's multimillion-dollar baseball and commercial endorsement fortune.
At the crux of their charges to be filed in Miami-Dade County Family Court will be:
- Her claim that she can no longer tolerate his cheating with a string of beauties.
- His claim that she is not serious about patching up their five-year marriage.
News from the dueling divorce camps came on a day when pop icon Madonna adamantly denied she broke up Rodriguez's marriage by using kabbalah to brainwash the slugger into believing they are soul mates.
Even as the "Papa Don't Preach" singer insisted, "I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage," Cynthia Rodriguez's lawyer said A-Rod's shenanigans with the 49-year-old Material Girl was "the final straw."
"She has reached the end of her ability to tolerate his continued marital misconduct," lawyer Earle Lilly told The News. "As a baseball player, the guy's terrific. This is the game of real life, and that's where he's not going to make the all-star team. As a parent and as a husband, he's not going to get voted in."
As details of his love life swirled off the field, A-Rod helped the Bombers beat the Red Sox, 5-4, by hitting his 536th homer of his career, tying Mickey Mantle for 13th on the all-time home-run list.
Dream team
Lilly said he has assembled a team of four legal eagles, including Miami lawyer Maurice Kutner, to take the Yankees' $275 million cleanup hitter to the cleaners.
In an attempt to protect his vast fortune - including lavish homes in Manhattan and Miami and a private jet - A-Rod has hired high-powered matrimonial lawyer Ira Elegant to represent him in the fight.
Elegant was recently hired to represent NBA hoops star Shaquille O'Neal in his divorce from wife, Shaunie.
"Cynthia has made it clear that she's not serious about reconciling," a friend of Alex Rodriguez, 32, told The News.
The A-Rod ally cited Cynthia Rodriguez's trip last week to Paris, where she stayed at the home of rocker pal Lenny Kravitz to clear her head.
"If she were serious, she wouldn't have parked their children in Florida and run off to Paris to see Lenny Kravitz at a rock concert," the friend said.
Kravitz, who is on a European tour, denied reports that painted the two as more than just friends.
In fact, friends of Cynthia Rodriguez, 34, contend it was A-Rod who encouraged her to flee the growing media storm fed by reports about his late-night dalliances with Madonna.
"He told her to stay as long as you want," a pal told The News.
A-Rod's friend denied Cynthia Rodriguez's claims that he had fallen under the spell of Madonna's beliefs in kabbalah, a mystical sect of Judaism popular with celebrities.
'Missing in action'
"Cynthia and Alex's problems started a long time before he became interested in kabbalah," said his friend.
"She's bombastic," A-Rod's friend said of Cynthia Rodriguez. "She claims she has supported him emotionally, but you rarely see her at a Yankees game nowadays," the pal dished. "Other Yankee wives accompany their husbands on the road. She's been missing in action."
The friend also accused Cynthia Rodriguez and her family of "trying to manipulate the media."
"If she was serious about working things out, why doesn't she stop them from talking?" hisfriend said. "Alex has kept quiet."
Last night, Cynthia Rodriguez was back in Miami. After working out at a gym, she joined her trainer, Dodd Romero, and hisdaughter for dinner at an Outback Steakhouse. Adhering to her postpregnancy diet, Cynthia Rodriguez ate tilapia, sweet potatoes and brown rice brought from home.
"She's in shock and awe from it," Romero said of the pending divorce. Cynthia has privately told friends she's heartbroken over their split and insists, "I still love my husband."
His antics with Madonna have peeved her the most. While Madonna denies any sexcapades, Cynthia has told friends he's obsessed with the "Justify My Love" siren. She revealed to friends and relatives that she discovered a letter A-Rod wrote to Madonna, professing, "You are my true soul mate."
A source close to the feuding couple claimed Madonna is using A-Rod to get some ink for her Sticky & Sweet world tour, which begins Aug. 23 in Wales.
"You cannot buy this kind of publicity," the source told The News.
Still, Lilly told The News, Madonna's name will not be included in his client's court papers.
"She [Cynthia Rodriguez] has tolerated a lot of misconduct, but this one was the straw ... the final straw," Lilly said of Madonna.
"I mean, having her sit in his box at baseball games, and the kabbalah meetings that have taken place ... it's like an open forum. It's just sort of embarrassing if nothing else," Lilly said. Lilly said Cynthia Rodriguez is not looking for a media "feeding frenzy."
"The papers will just express the sadness and great distress," he said. "The trail's end is near and we need to resolve these very difficult personal issues and economic issues."
Lilly said Cynthia Rodriguez's court papers will also cite "emotional abandonment."
"It basically says that she's crushed, devastated by his inability to consent to a reasonable marital relationship with her and a parental relationship with his two children," Lilly said.
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