Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell will be put on administrative leave after his ex-wife, Melisa Reidy, posted a link to a blog on her Instagram page, according to a September 21 report by USA Today . The top of the page reads, “you no longer have a secret, you have a story.”
The blog post talks in detail about the physical and emotional abuse Reidy experienced while married to Russell.
Reidy was 20-years-old when the two met. In the post, she talks about how, at first, “everything was perfect.” He treated her well in the beginning, she said, but just months into the marriage things started going wrong. Russell began belittling her on a daily basis, but she found this hard to share with others.
“Finding the courage to stand up for yourself and take back control of your life takes a lot of guts for someone like me who was in a relationship that striped me away from my self-worth & self-respect. No one wants to admit that there are serious problems going on in your relationship when you first get married, especially when society expects you to always portray your life to be picture perfect when you are in the public eye.”
Thomas Field, a lawyer who represented Reidy in the past, informed USA Today that the posts were legitimate. “She thought it was time to come out and say these things,” he said. He had exchanged messages with her after she shared the blog post. Field heads the Family Law Practice Group for Beerman LLP.
The abuse soon escalated, until Reidy was consumed with keeping her husband happy.
“The first time I was physically mistreated by my spouse, I was in shock. I couldn’t wrap my head around what just happened…Why did he get so angry?”
Reidy says she had panic attacks several times a week for months after leaving Russell. Their divorce was finalized on on Aug. 30, more than a year after the petition was first filed.
Though Reidy wasn’t certain whether or not she wanted to talk about the abuse, stories she read about other women in her situation made her want to reveal what she went through and how she survived. This is not the first time Reidy has accused Russell of mistreating her.
The two have a son, Aiden, who was born in the fall of 2015. Russell also has a daughter from a past relationship.