Tim Anderson has opened up for the first time about having a child out of wedlock.
The star White Sox shortstop found his marriage to his wife Bria the subject of much rumor and innuendo on social media over the past year as another woman gave birth to his son.
Anderson spoke about the matter on “The Pivot Podcast” with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor.
“I never really wanted to play the internet game, and I never did,” the 29-year-old Anderson said, as covered by Audacy.
“I wanted to stay into like the real life, the real life phase of what I’ve created and try to handle it the best way I can and kind of more so keeping people out of the business.
“Because nobody really ever understood what I was going through when I was making those decisions or where my heart was or what was on my mind or how hurt I was or how lonely I felt.
“But ultimately, the goal was never to really play with anybody’s feelings. It was more so, I was just trying to find who I am and continue to keep going and identify myself. I made a couple decisions that probably shouldn’t have been made along the way, but I’m open to dealing with them and growing with them. This is what it is. I’m willing to take whatever smoke comes with it, and I just really want to be honest.
“Really, the most honest I can be with the world, with the people around me and the people I love and just continue to keep stepping by faith, having faith in everything I do and just knowing that all this is going to get better at the end of the day.”
Anderson and his wife share two daughters, and he spoke about working through the situation with Bria while making sure to be a part of all three of his kids’ lives.
“It was a lot of work behind the scenes,” Anderson said.
“We went to therapy, just digging into what was it, what caused me to go into these spaces or even that space to even create that. It’s a tough conversation. It’s a tough situation. I feel like we did a lot of work as far as understanding it and showing my love to my wife and to my kids. But it’s something that I’m still going through, trying to master it to get to the point to where I’m OK with walking it and stepping in it, 1,000% for sure.”
Anderson, a two-time All-Star, said the situation has made it harder for him to focus on baseball.
He is batting .259 with a .750 OPS, 10 RBIs and no home runs entering Wednesday night.
“Even just to be right here to talk to y’all, it’s crazy,” Anderson said. “Because when I was first going through it, I didn’t want to be seen. I didn’t want to be talked to, but I still had to go out and play.
“So that even made it a whole lot tougher on me.”