A-Rod Is Reportedly Going to Spend the Holidays With His First Wife, Cynthia Scurtis

Baseball superstar Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez might have recently ended a long-term relationship with Jennifer Lopez, but before there was J-Lo, or Cameron Diaz, or Kate Hudson, there was Cynthia Scurtis. Questions into his past first emerged in the wake of rumors that Alex cheated on J-Lo, but even long after their split, fans are still wondering what exactly went down with Alex's first wife that led to their divorce.

Cynthia and Alex met in a surprisingly normal way: at the gym. According to HollywoodLife, Cynthia was on the Stairmaster at Body and Soul Gym in 1996 when the pair first met. Alex was the shortstop for the Seattle Mariners at the time — so not quite the baseball legend of today, but quickly growing in fame. A source told the outlet he was really into women who loved fitness and insisted upon asking her out before she eventually said yes.

Eventually, on Cynthia's 30th birthday, Alex proposed, and she said yes! While her family, a prominent Florida Greek Orthodox family, initially objected to the marriage because Alex wasn't Greek, the pair were married at Cynthia's grandfather's mansion in Texas in 2002. They share two children: Ella Alexander and Natasha Alexander.

The pair divorced in 2008, just six years after their marriage. Cynthia was the one who filed for divorce after rumors had begun to spread about Alex spending a little too much time with a stripper in Las Vegas.

According to her petition for marriage, as quoted by ESPN, "The marriage of the parties is irretrievably broken because of the husband’s extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct." The divorce was finalized in September 2008.

Talk about the perfect example of a blended family! According to Us Weekly, Alex and Cynthia spend "a lot of time together" with their daughters in the wake of his split from J-Lo. The family already celebrated Thanksgiving together and now it's being reported that they're going to spend Christmas together as well.

"It’s like they’re one big happy family when they’re together," claimed an insider for the publication. Furthermore, they noted that Alex gets along well with Cynthia's new husband, Angel Nicolas. "[The men’s] relationship has turned into a friendship — they support each other. There’s no bad blood there," they said.

It was revealed that Alex's ex-wife's brother, Constantine Scurtis, sued the MLB player for $50 million over allegations of racketeering and embezzlement. On Feb. 9, 2021, Alex pled to have the claims dismissed, and the judge denied his plea.

Constantine initially filed a $50 million lawsuit over seven years ago when Alex split from his sister. Alex went into the real estate business with Constantine the year he and Cynthia were married, according to the Daily Mail.

The terms of the business deal included "[Alex] put in all the money for a 95 percent stake ... [Constantine] was given 5 percent because of his expertise, plus a 3 percent acquisition fee on properties." The business was called Newport Property Ventures, and by 2008 the pair had 5,000 apartments amongst other units in an empire worth about $1 billion.

However, Vanity Fair explains that Alex then convinced Constantine to "defer those 3 percent acquisition fees so that the money could remain liquid within the company, a move [Constantine] says cost him $8 million. He also alleges that [Alex] took his name off some of the individual LLCs they created for specific real estate projects."

Alex settled his legal issues with Constantine for an undisclosed amount in mid-November 2021. The settlement was reached right before the case was about to see its day in court.

It sounds like there's a confluence of things just working out well in Alex's life right now. Whether it's settling legal woes or Cynthia and him now happily co-parenting (as seen in an adorable snapshot posted to Instagram), life is clearly on an upswing for the baseball legend.