Alex Rodriguez has been fairly quiet the last couple of years, which I guess is good given that for a while there he was careening from unhinged to stalker to creepy in the immediate aftermath of his breakup with Jennifer Lopez. But he pulled himself together, even spoke graciously of J.Lo a year after their split, and has been enjoying life with his two teenage daughters. And that includes doing “a couple loads of laundry” with his older daughter when visiting her at college in Michigan. A-Rod recently confessed that was one of “less than five times” that he’s done laundry in his adult life. He made the revelation while touting his new partnership with — wait for it — Lysol. You could say this moment for A-Rod is where the irony met the ironing board. (This story is from a little while ago but I’m just seeing it now.)
One place you won’t find Alex Rodriguez very often is the laundry room.
“I’ve probably done laundry, as an adult — I’m ashamed to say — probably less than five times,” Rodriguez, 48, exclusively tells Us Weekly while promoting his partnership with Lysol.
With the help of Lysol, Rodriguez might be “doing a lot more laundry” than before. “What I learned was that Lysol does kill bacteria, 99.9 percent of bacteria, especially the things that make these uniforms smelly,” he adds. “So that’s a good thing.”
Rodriguez explained that he did a couple of loads with his 19-year-old daughter, Natasha, whom he recently dropped off at the University of Michigan.
“It’s funny, we speak almost every night, and a couple nights a week, she’s in the laundry room doing her laundry,” he tells Us of Natasha.
Rodriguez shares Natasha and 15-year-old daughter Ella with Cynthia Scurtis. The pair split in 2008 after six years of marriage.
Since moving Natasha into school in August 2023, Rodriguez has been open about how the transition has impacted him. “I think the first month is always the toughest because it is so strange,” he tells Us of the adjustment period. “It hasn’t been like that for 18 years, but now that the first quarter is gone … I feel a lot better.”
Rodriguez gushed that Natasha is “in a really good place,” adding, “She’s in the middle of a play, which I’m going to go watch her on Saturday, so she’s doing well.”
Rodriguez previously shared that Scurtis, 51, told him he was texting their eldest daughter “too much” after sending her off.
“It’s hard. For the first time in 18 years, I don’t have my two girls with me at dinner,” Rodriguez exclusively told Us in September 2023. “The good news is I get to spend more time with Ella. I guess there’s a silver lining everywhere.”
When Rodriguez isn’t spending time with his daughters, he can be found teaming up with Lysol to create “The Lost Bet.” In the video, Rodriguez travels back to his locker room to take on a new role as an equipment manager and learns how to tackle the stench with Lysol Laundry Sanitizer.
“They came to me with a great idea of celebrating equipment managers, which often are the unsung heroes,” he tells Us, adding that they “don’t ever get enough credit.”
Ok, I know we’re supposed to be eye rolling at a nearly 50-year-old man barely having done laundry in his life. But you know what? If I had the means to evade that particular chore, I would too! There are many things in this life that I am good at. Laundry is not one of them. Granted, I was trained by my mother who openly copped to her ability to “make anything gray.” My irritation with the task has only amplified thanks to it being 10 years since I’ve lived in a building with a laundry room. I just can’t get excited about the Sisyphean rigmarole, so A-Rod gets a pass from me on this one.
What really stuck out to me in this interview is what a sweet girl dad he is. He’s going through all the feels of having his first baby off at college, and it’s adorable! It took me right back to memories of my father when I left for college cross-country. When my parents first took me to the airport, I was about to lug my (huuuuge) suitcase inside when my father called out to me, “Kismet! Have a great life!” Many months later my mother told me that after dropping me off my father asked to go out and do something before returning home; he wanted to delay going back to the house without me being there. He, too, was lousy at laundry.
