Report: Ben Zobrist Says Wife Julianna ‘Coaxed' Cubs Return

Report: Zobrist says wife ‘coaxed’ Cubs return for more cash originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

New details have emerged in the divorce proceedings between former Cubs World Series MVP Ben Zobrist, and his estranged wife Julianna, revealing a messier situation than anyone could have imagined.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Julianna is requesting an extra $4 million as she contends Ben willingly forfeited that money when he took a leave of absence from the Cubs in May 2019. Per documents obtained by the Tribune, Julianna asserts that Ben “intentionally and voluntarily stopped working” and “essentially went from the top of his game to basically giving up, which caused a massive loss in income.”

In addition, the newspaper’s reporting outlines new details in Julianna’s affair with the Zobrists’ former pastor and marriage counselor, Byron Yawn. Ben alleges that Julianna hid the extent of her affair with Yawn, then purposely destroyed evidence of that affair as court proceedings were underway.

“It appears that one of wife’s main motives in concealing her affair with Pastor while participating in marriage counseling was to coax husband back into playing baseball so he could further enrich the marital estate in which wife is expected to receive significant sums of money once the court equitably divides the estate,” Ben said in his memorandum, via the Tribune. “One would be hard pressed to concoct a more deceitful, sinister, and otherwise inappropriate scheme than wife has devised in this divorce matter.

“Therefore wife is going to claim, in order to complete her scheme, that husband ‘dissipated’ the marital estate when he decided to take a leave of absence so that the parties could work on the marriage. Again, it is difficult to fathom a more disingenuous argument when it was wife, who knew full well that she had no intent in repairing the marriage, even attended marriage counseling in bad faith while continuing her affair with Pastor Yawn.”

Ben also alleges that Julianna overspent from their marital estate— a court order limited her to spending $30,000 per month for living expenses due to exorbitant spending— and is seeking 60% of the couple’s assets, per the newspaper.

According to the Tribune, Ben estimates their marital estate is worth $24 million, while Julianna estimates it’s worth nearly $31 million.

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