The Truth About Alex Rodriguez's Affair With Madonna
Alex Rodriguez's alleged romance with Madonna was the talk of Tinseltown back in 2008. Gossip blogs claimed the twosome enjoyed a very high-profile relationship while Rodriguez was still married to his former wife and the mother of his two daughters, Cynthia Scurtis, and Madonna was wed to Guy Ritchie, father to her son Rocco Ritchie.
As of March 2021, Rodriguez is happily engaged to Jennifer Lopez, with the athlete popping the question to the multi-hyphenate in March 2019 on the beach during a vacation to the Bahamas. The couple announced the happy news on Instagram; Lopez shared a close up of her ring as she placed her hand in her husband-to-be's, while Rodriguez posted the same snap alongside the caption, "she said yes."
But it's easy to forget that before the former New York Yankee was happy in love with J.Lo, he had quite the dating past. According to CBS News, he's been romantically linked to some huge names including Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, and of course, Madonna. But what really happened between the two that caused a huge media firestorm? Keep reading to find out.
Alex Rodriguez and Madonna were accused of cheating on their spouses
Alex Rodriguez and Cynthia Scurtis' marriage publicly broke down in July 2008 after around six years, with Madonna firmly at the center of a lot of speculation about what went wrong, amid rumors her own marriage to Guy Ritchie was on the rocks. A source alleged to People that it was Scurtis' decision to leave A-Rod after reports surfaced alleging he'd spent a lot of time with Madonna, which proved to be too much. "The embarrassment over Madonna was the last straw. She flew to Paris to get out of town before everything blew up between them," they claimed, with Scurtis reportedly heading to Lenny Kravitz's French home.
Rodriguez's former trainer Dodd Romero hinted at an affair to New York Post. He said he believed the athlete had been "pulled in by the dark side" amid reports Rodriguez had gotten into Kabbalah, Madonna's religion at the time. Romero also called him "totally brainwashed," adding that Scurtis "believes that is what ruined the marriage." Scurtis also allegedly told a friend she believed the affair rumors and supposedly said she'd found a letter from Rodriguez to Madonna, where he told her she was his "true soulmate."
People claimed Madonna and Ritchie weren't on great terms for a while before their December 2008 divorce. They reportedly "fought over adopting son David from Malawi in 2006; over Kabbalah; over careers that kept them physically apart" and "their growing emotional distance."
What did Madonna and Alex Rodriguez say about the rumors?
Madonna's rep issued a statement as the rumors dominated the headlines in July 2008 after she and Alex Rodriguez appeared to grow close. Though the response addressed the speculation, it didn't exactly explicitly confirm or deny if they shared a romance. "Madonna and Alex have the same manager, Guy Oseary. They have met. They know each other and Madonna took her kids to a Yankees game last week," the statement read, per People. "There's really not anything to comment on beyond that."
Rodriguez was later asked by People about the status of his and Madonna's relationship in December 2008. "We're friends," he responded, before he was asked more directly if there was anything more romantic between the two, when he added, "We're friends — that's it."
However, Rodriguez's former wife Cynthia Scurtis' divorce filing appeared to tell a different story. According to the New York Post, her grounds for ending the marriage were that it was "irretrievably broken because of the husband's extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct." Earle Lilly, Scurtis' lawyer, shed more light on the situation to People in July 2008 when she suggested that Madonna and A-Rod may not have had a physical affair, but did have an emotional affair. "Some people categorize an affair as something as sexual infidelity. We're not claiming that. It's an affair of the heart," Lilly said.
What does Jennifer Lopez think of the affair rumors?
They didn't start dating until 2017, though Jennifer Lopez has poked a little fun at rumors her fiancé Alex Rodriguez had an affair with Madonna. For Halloween 2020, the star dressed up as the pop star and rocked a lace wedding dress to look like her in her music video for "Like A Virgin" and performance at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. Lopez posted the proof to Instagram and the choice raised a few eyebrows thanks to A-Rod and Madonna's history, though J.Lo made it clear in a December 2020 interview that she wasn't too bothered.
"I dressed as Madonna and Alex, he went as Bruce Springsteen," Lopez said during an appearance on SiriusXM's Radio Andy while speaking to Andy Cohen. Cohen asked if things felt "odd" because Rodriguez "dated Madonna for two seconds," but Lopez said she didn't care about her man's romantic history, replying, "No. I mean, it was so long ago... No, it wasn't weird at all. I loved it."
Lopez and Rodriguez actually met years before the Madonna rumors, as she explained in a June 2019 interview with Sports Illustrated. She recalled their first interaction at a May 2005 baseball game, which Lopez attended with her then husband Marc Anthony, the father of her twins, Max and Emme. "We shook hands, and it was this weird electricity for, like, three seconds... Three to five seconds of looking at somebody right in their eyes, and getting stuck," she said.