The good and the bad. Kyle Martino looked back on the beginning of his relationship with Eva Amurri and what led to their split in a candid new interview.
“I met Eva at a time in my life that was really tough,” the former soccer player, 39, said in a sneak peek of his appearance on fubo Sports Network’s The Cooligans, which airs in full on Thursday, May 28, at 8 p.m. ET. “I had just had a career-ending injury. Didn’t realize it then but realize it now, was going through serious depression and had during most of my career and didn’t know how to deal with it.”
He continued, “I mean, she was there to save my life, really, in a time that was incredibly tumultuous. A lot of transition, didn’t know which way was up and was kind of just … all over the place. It was leading to a really bad state of just feeling super down and not wanting to get out of bed.”
Martino explained that “no one really knew” what he was going through at the time because he “put on an act,” but he bonded with Amurri, now 35, who had also been struggling.
“We met and really fell in love quickly in that, like, we needed each other,” he recalled. “Her parents [Susan Sarandon and stepdad Tim Robbins] were splitting the month we met. So, we kind of took turns saving each other. And obviously there was chemistry and passion and attraction, all those things that come at the beginning of a relationship.”
The couple went on to tie the knot in October 2011. They later welcomed daughter Marlowe, 5, and son Major, 3, but their marriage started to crumble before the March arrival of their third child, Mateo.
“The last three or four years, we really sucked at being married,” the sports analyst admitted. “We were, like, trying really hard to make it work. Anyone that says, ‘Man, this marriage thing is a knack, this is great’ is getting divorced soon.”
The former couple announced their separation in November 2019, just two months after sharing the news of Amurri’s third pregnancy. They finalized their divorce on February 4, and Mateo was born on March 13.
“People were really judgmental and couldn’t imagine that we would make this decision from a place of love for each other, as a positive transition for our kids,” Martino said on Thursday. “Let’s show [our kids] what they should aspire to build in a successful marriage, and let’s also show them happy Mom and happy Dad, because we’re not happy together married.”
He added, “We gave each other a huge hug the day we decided to [split]. We gave each other a hug in divorce court when it was official. We love each other. We just suck at being married, and we shouldn’t be married. We will be in each other’s lives forever as coparents.”
