Julianna Zobrist, estranged wife of Cubs veteran Ben Zobrist, broke her social-media silence this weekend with an Instagram post.
“Hi. I am still here,” the post begins. “Somewhat in the mire, but I am still here.”
The weekend post was the first public comment from Ben or Julianna Zobrist since their break-up.
Ben Zobrist has been on personal leave from the Cubs since May 8 as the two have separately filed for separation this month. Ben Zobrist filed in Nashville for legal separation from his wife, alleging she “has been guilty of inappropriate marital conduct, which rendered further cohabitation impossible.” Julianna Zobrist filed for divorce in Cook County circuit court, according to court records, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Julianna Zobrist, a professional singer who has sung the national anthem at Cubs games and sang “God Bless America” before a 2016 World Series game at Wrigley Field, deleted her Twitter account weeks before her court filing. She had scrubbed her Instagram account of images of her husband earlier this year.
Ben Zobrist, the MVP of the 2016 World Series, also delayed reporting to spring training in February for what he and the team also called “personal reasons.”
Her post this weekend continued: “Over these last two weeks I have watched so many of you quietly enter the marshland with me. I can see you, sitting beside me, waist deep in the water and bog. I can feel you, in a silence like art, honoring the most intimate spaces of our pain and heartbreak without shame. I can hear you saying, Let me carry some of that for you.
“Thank you for stepping forward and not back. Thank you for not shutting your eyes. Thank you for holding my heart within yours, even while you do not yet understand exactly what you are holding. Someday I will share my story with you…but not today. Today we breathe in deeply the fragrance of the rushes and reeds, and then, I might need your delicate reminder to breathe out again. Maybe tomorrow we will look up and notice the marsh wren and smile at her song. Maybe the day after that we will laugh at the skittish harvest mouse. But not today.
“Today we Be. Today we softly whisper, ‘btw, you are Loved.’ “
