Alex Rodriguez is opening up about his dynamic with fellow former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter.
“It’s been an incredible arc with Derek and I. We’ve been friends for more than 30 years now and we played together for a long time,” Rodriguez, 48, exclusively tells Us Weekly while promoting his partnership with Lysol® Laundry Sanitizer. “The arc of our relationship, I’m really proud of where it is right now. I’m really proud of him and all the work he’s doing both in media, his business, and also he’s always given back to the community so much. So, I think we’re both in a good place and I think we’re both very happy to be working together.”
Rodriguez and Jeter, 49, who both work for FOX Sports, have weathered ups and downs over the course of their long friendship. They met as teenagers at a college baseball game in 1993 and became friends when they were both playing in the minor league. After they both went pro, Rodriguez famously made a shady comment about Jeter during a 2001 interview with Esquire.
“Jeter’s been blessed with great talent around him. So, he’s never had to lead,” he said. (At the time, Rodriguez was playing for the Texas Rangers while Jeter was already with the Yankees.)
Jeter later admitted that the comments “bothered” him during the 2022 docuseries The Captain.
“As a friend, I’m loyal. I just looked at it as, ‘I wouldn’t have done it,’” he explained.
Several years after the Esquire interview made headlines, Rodriguez admitted that his friendship with Jeter was not what it once was.
“People start assuming that things are a lot worse than what they are, which they’re not. But they’re obviously not as great as they used to be,” he told the Associated press in 2007. “We were like blood brothers. … It’s actually much better than all you guys expect, but I just want to let the truth be known.”
The twosome overlapped on the Yankees from 2004 to 2013, and their complicated friendship still fascinates fans to this day.
“It’s been an obsession,” Rodriguez told Us, adding that he saw “so many fans” celebrating when Jeter appeared on his podcast “The Deal With Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly” last month. “They were so happy that we were reconnected. And I think that makes a lot of Yankees fans smile.”
In addition to maintaining a bond with Jeter, Rodriguez has built a strong coparenting relationship with ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis, with whom he shares daughters Natasha, 19, and Ella, 15. The exes, who were married from 2002 to 2008, sent Natasha off to college this past fall.
“I think that Cynthia and I have done the best we could [so] that she’s truly prepped to go to the next step of her life and the next stage,” Rodriguez told Us of adjusting to Natasha leaving home. “And so far, she’s in a good place and we’re very proud of her. But obviously the distance is definitely the most challenging part.”
While Rodriguez has been loving dad duties for nearly two decades, he tried out a brand new role for his partnership with Lysol®. In an advertisement for the cleaning company, Rodriguez finds himself taking on an equipment manager’s job and cleaning a smelly locker room after losing a bet. But with the help of Lysol® Laundry Sanitizer, he finishes the task with ease.
“I’ve probably done laundry — as an adult — I’m ashamed to say that it’s probably less than five times,” Rodriguez admitted to Us. “Recently I did it a couple of times with my daughter, [who] I just dropped off at University of Michigan. And what I learned was that Lysol does kill bacteria, 99.9 percent of bacteria, especially the things that make these uniforms smelly. So, that’s a good thing.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
