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.
I’ve had a housekeeper since 2011 but we still did household laundry until I got a big promotion within 6 months of my husband also getting a big promotion and both of us suddenly needing more bandwidth. Part of the deal of us both accepting was that we increased her workload/frequency/compensation-she now does all the laundry, ironing, folding, and even organizes our closets and puts items away. Honestly…greatest thing ever. Worth every penny. I think I would give up a lot of things before I went back to doing my own laundry. It is such a miserable chore. The only issue is that my 12 year old son isn’t really learning to care for his own clothes so we’ve had to have lessons on that, because “Miss E” isn’t going to freaking college with you, bruh.
I still do my laundry loads but my housekeeper puts it away. I absolutely love having my housekeeper and she’s fantastic. I gave her a title because honestly she deserves it: Director of Domestic Maintenance.
My husband didn’t want our housekeeper to do the laundry so she stopped for our clothes 🤯 (she’s with us since over 15 years) We now do our own laundry all of us in the house (youngest was 11 at the time). Housekeeper still will do the bedding. Works perfect. Nobody looks fir anything, wear what you wash
STILLDOUCHESS – can the housekeeper do your laundry and leave his for him to do?
People who were raised in first-world countries have no idea just how exhausting doing laundry is without the use of garment-washing machines and dryers. Many people around the world have to carry their laundry to the nearest river, wash by hand every single item including wringing. Then bring it back to the house and hang everything on a clothesline. I am pretty sure Mr. Rodriguez’ laundry was done by his mother and later by his wife I guess. That is how Spanish-Latin macho cultures are. So it is not surprising he has not done laundry more than five times in his life.
So Rodriguez pretending to be an equipment manager is honoring equipment managers? Why not just hire some actual equipment managers to do an ad?
because it takes a famous person to spotlight a role people normally don’t see. I get it’s kinda ridiculous but a sport’s fan eye will look at his ad over John Doe.
I saw a meme once that said: washing laundry: 1-2 business days; putting laundry away: 5-7 business days.
Using the washer and dryer = no problem. But when it’s clean and dried then sorting it, untangling it, folding it, matching socks, dealing with hangers = the worst. And we definitely know ARod has never had to fold a fitted sheet.
Doing laundry is a necessary part of life, so I have elevated it to as much of a joy as I can. I am always comparing and contrasting detergents (Tyler’s Diva, a little added into a load can make everything smell heavenly). I am even on the laundry Subreddit because those people make me feel like less of a nutjob. Its an effort not to let other’s know how much I enjoy laundry, because suddenly I end up in charge of changing all the bedding in a house…
@RMS, “[…] is a necessary part of life, so I have elevated it to as much of a joy as I can” is my attitude to life in general.
Tyler’s Diva (and Icon and French Market)… heaven! It’s used on all our stuff-sooo amazing!
Maybe I’m weird, but laundry isn’t that bad to me? In the States, the machines wash quickly and in Europe they take less laundry and more time, but the machines still do the work. Tons of ironing on the other hand…or cleaning the bathroom…that’s not my preferred task.
I guess it’s not surprising that someone else was always available to take care of AR’s wash, but it sounds infantile that he’s only done it himself a handful of times.
Well, he’s only done laundry “as an adult” a few times — leaving open the possibility that he might have done a few loads before he became a professional athlete at 18.
I have mixed feelings about doing laundry. It can feel like such an accomplishment when the bags of laundry get transformed into neat, freshly fragranced stacks of clothes and linens. OTOH, since, for most of my life I’ve had to leave my apartment or even my apartment building to get it done, the process leading to the transformations can be tedious. I once had a small apartment that had the dryer stacked near the bathroom. Ahh: the wonderfully indulgent luxury of warm towels! Lol
I agree, I find it a really satisfying task as you take a big pile of dirty stuff, get it nice and clean (with minimal effort thank you washing machine) then fold and away. Done. That said the only think I iron are pillowcases and tea towels but I even find the folding and putting away satisfying rather than annoying.
I finally got a heated airer this winter and have enjoyed finding the best technique to get things dried as quickly as possible using it.
Cleaning is a whole other matter and while the cost of a cleaner does sting she’s amazing and I’m so happy to have her in my life.
This is confusing to me. How does he get clean clothes? Has he always had someone to do it for him or he was/is paying for someone to do this? Interesting. Did he go to college like his daughter is? Who did his clothes then? This one is making me scratch my head because how?
A rod was drafted out of high school – the number one overall pick.
I don’t know about the mlb, but I know college athletes who had laundry handled by the team. So I can definitely believe that even in his rookie year, his team or him made sure stuff like laundry was taken care of so he could focus on baseball.