Addison Russell was placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball on Friday after his ex-wife opened up about abuse allegations against the Chicago Cubs shortstop in a blog post this week.
Ex-Wife of Cubs' Addison Russell Melisa Reidy Details Abuse Allegations https://t.co/6DRLSDVB5V
— SportsGossip.com (@sportsgossip) September 21, 2018
The Cubs announce that Addison Russell has been place on administrative leave after new allegations surfaced against him from his ex-wife Melisa-Reidy Russell in an essay posted Thursday. @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/QxzngbfNkH
— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) September 21, 2018
Previous allegations by a friend of Reidy-Russell triggered an MLB investigation into Russell last year that remains open.
“The first time I was physically mistreated by my spouse, I was in shock,” Reidy-Russell wrote. “I couldn’t wrap my head around what just happened … Why did he get so angry? What did I do for him to want to put his hands on me? Of course I forgave him & assumed it would never happen again. I just thought he had let his emotions get the best of him, he loves me and he’s sorry. I was deeply hurt that he could even be capable of this behavior towards me, I couldn’t understand how the man I was so in love with, the FATHER of my child, the man I married just a few months ago could show such aggression towards me.”
Reidy-Russell wrote that emotional and verbal abuse became an “everyday thing” in their relationship.
“Being blamed for just about anything that went wrong, name calling, intimidating me with personal force, manipulating me to think I was the problem, destroying my personal things, threatening me to ‘send’ me & our son home to my parents as if I was privileged to be living in our home,” she wrote. “Basically, I felt like I was nothing, a nobody & I was nothing without him, & I couldn’t do anything without him.”
MLB opened its probe in June 2017 after Reidy-Russell accused Russell of cheating in an Instagram post and a friend commented with an allegation of abuse by the Cubs shortstop.
You can check out more pics of the couple below: