Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson opened up about his extramarital affair and fathering a child with his mistress on “The Pivot Podcast” with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor. This was Anderson’s first public in-depth discussion on his struggles, and it’s clear he and his family are still working through it.
“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 okay with walking it and stepping in it, 1,000 percent for sure.”
Tim Anderson Publicly Owning His Mistake
Anderson had an affair with Dejah Lanee and fathered a son, whom he shared a photo of on Instagram stories earlier this year. The two-time All-Star is married to Bria Anderson and the couple shares two daughters, Peyton and Paxton.
“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,” Anderson continued. “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.”
Bria and Dejah got into a social media back and forth over who had the right to claim Anderson as theirs. Bria and Tim have both said they are working on their marriage.
It Will Take Time
At its core, a relationship is about trust and the participants feeling safe. By having an affair and fathering a child, Tim broke that trust. It’s going to take time for him to re-establish trust with Bria and his kids. If they want a healthy functioning family unit, the work will be ongoing.
The 2019 AL batting champion admitted that the drama surrounding his affair has impacted his play on the field. He’s hitting .259 with a .605 OPS this season. His WAR is -0.3; that’s below a replacement-level player.
“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.”
This is the reality of being a modern-day public figure. Any misstep, flaw, lapse in judgment will be dissected and analyzed for the world to see and judge.
