Yankee star Alex Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, have split after about three months of problems in their marriage, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Daily News Wednesday.
Word of the breakup comes a day after widespread reports that the Bombers’ $275 million cleanup hitter has been rounding the bases with pop icon Madonna – and team owner Hank Steinbrenner blamed recent poor play on “outside distractions.”
“It’s true,” the source said of A-Rod’s separation from his wife of five years. “They’ve been having problems for about three months.”
Word of the couple’s marital strife comes less than three months after they expressed how “thrilled” they were with the April 21 birth of their daughter, Ella Alexander.
Rodriguez, 32, didn’t join his wife in Miami until 10 minutes after she gave birth, and spent only a day with her and their newborn before rejoining the Yankees.
Revelations of the couple’s not-so-great-nuptials came as new rumors surfaced on the Internet that Cynthia Rodriguez, 34, was having a fling with rocker Lenny Kravitz.
The gossip item on PerezHilton.com quoted a “family friend” claiming C-Rod had gone on a romantic getaway in Paris with Kravitz.
“She is not! I know that,” Cynthia Rodriguez’s mother, Evangeline Scurtis, told The News yesterday. Scurtis refused to discuss the status of her daughter’s relationship with Rodriguez, repeatedly saying, “No comment.”
Kravitz, 44, is in the middle of his “Love Revolution Tour” in Europe.
Coincidentally, A-Rod, Madonna and Kravitz all share the same manager, Guy Oseary.
A-Rod was steadfastly mum on the report, turning his back and walking away from a News reporter at Yankee Stadium seeking comment about the Kravitz rumor.
In May 2007, Cynthia Rodriguez endured the embarrassment of photos published of her husband entering a Toronto strip club with Scores dancer Joslyn Noel Morse. At the time, she packed her bags and bolted from their East Side pad.
It remains unclear if Alex and Cynthia Rodriguez are headed for divorce court. If so, she stands to get a heaping hunk of massive baseball and commercial endorsement earnings. A-Rod’s salary is about $28 million a year, his endorsements run even higher – and he owns lavish homes in New York and Miami.
Madonna, who is coping with rumors of her own breakup with husband Guy Ritchie, has denied she and A-Rod are an item. “They’re just friends,” Madonna’s spokeswoman insisted.
Without mentioning Rodriguez by name, Steinbrenner went on a tirade about the team’s on-field slump.
“I don’t know. Maybe a little less outside distractions and a little more concentrating and they’ll start hitting better,” he said.