MLB Star Ben Zobrist Accuses Pastor of Having an Affair With His Wife in Lawsuit

Ben Zobrist is making major allegations for huge amounts of money.

The 2016 World Series MVP, who retired from professional baseball last year after 13 years, is accusing pastor Byron Yawn of having an affair with his wife Julianna and defrauding his charity, via People.

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The 40-year-old retired player filed the lawsuit in Tennessee in May, and claimed that the pastor “usurped the ministerial-counselor role, violated and betrayed the confidence entrusted to him by [Zobrist], breached his fiduciary duty owed to [Zobrist] and deceitfully used his access as counselor to engage in an inappropriate sexual relationship with [Zobrist]‘s wife,” via NBC News.

According to the legal papers, Ben and Julianna started pre-marital counseling with the pastor in 2005, and Ben went for counseling with Byron in 2007, 2016 and 2017. He alleged a year later that the pastor then “began secretly pursuing an intimate relationship with [Julianna]” and “encouraged [Zobrist]‘s wife to keep secret from her husband the true nature of her relationship with Yawn through their mutual use of ‘burner phones.’”

“[Yawn] secretly maintained a sexually intimate relationship with [Zobrist's] wife for the remainder of 2019 and into the spring of 2020, all the while concealing it from [Zobrist], his counselee,” the filing continues.

In May of 2019, the pastor’s wife Robin reportedly discovered her husband’s burner phone and told Ben that “she believed her husband and his wife were having an emotional relationship.” Ben and Julianna each filed for divorce in Illinois and Tennessee that month.

In a statement to NBC News, Ben‘s lawyer Larry Crain said: “[His client is] trying to make the most of his career through helping others, helping young minor league players. That’s what he’s devoting himself to, to move on.”

“At the end of the day, a woman has the right to choose who she wants to be with. We’re in the middle of litigation, so I can’t really comment further at this point, but that’s what it boils down to. My client deserves his day in court and for the truth to be heard, and so we’re going to do that through the court process,” said the pastor’s lawyer Christopher Bellamy to the Chicago Tribune.

“We are in the middle of litigation, so I cannot comment further at this point, but that is what this case boils down to. The facts are going to come out in the course of the lawsuit and the court proceedings.”

Ben is now seeking $6 million in punitive and compensatory damages through a trial by jury. For more details, head to NBC News.

Another former MLB star is also making headlines recently regarding his love life.