Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell has been linked to a blog post which describes years of physical and emotional abuse in an unnamed relationship.
On her Instagram profile, Melisa Reidy-Russell, Russell’s ex-wife, has a link to a WordPress blog titled “you no longer have a secret, you have a story.” In the post, the author describes getting daily abuse from her husband. It’s a tough read.
“Emotional/verbal abuse started way before I even realized, eventually it started to be an everyday thing. 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. Basically, I felt like I was nothing, a nobody & I was nothing without him, & I couldn’t do anything without him.”
“I saw a darkness in him I’ve never seen or experienced in him or anyone else. Slowly but surely I realized the man I grew to love so much was becoming more and more of a stranger to me everyday that went by.”
While Russell isn’t directly mentioned by name, the account links to previous allegations against the 24-year-old. After filing for divorce last year, Major League Baseball previously looked in Russell after abuse allegations went public in 2017. Reidy-Russell did not cooperate with an investigation at the time.
The allegations are serious. If true and they are in fact about Russell, MLB needs to act immediately. We’ll update this story as further news breaks. You can read the blog post here.
