Here we go again: another famous athlete was caught creeping on his wife. This time, NFL star and Today show contributor Tiki Barber is on the forefront following his announcement that he and his wife Ginny would be getting a divorce.
And according to the NY Post, the former footballer broke off his 11-year marriage with his wife, who is expecting twins next month, to get with a former 23-year-old NBC intern named Traci Lynn Johnson. The Post also says Ginny found out about her husband’s extra marital affairs late last year, shortly after he moved out of their Upper East Side home.
“We were shocked to find out that he could walk out on his wife of 11 years while she’s pregnant with twins. He was with this girl in Senegal while Ginny was three months pregnant. And we believe she was also with him in Vancouver while he was blogging about the Winter Olympics for Yahoo.com.”
Barber, who is believed to have to have relocated to an Upper West Side bachelor paid, released a statement yesterday in response to a Page Six item announcing the split. “After 11 years of marriage, Ginny and I have decided to separate,” Barber said. “This decision was a painful one, but we are moving forward amicably and will continue to work together to raise our children with the love and dedication they have always known.” A Tiki Barber spokesman declined to comment.
Ginny is a former fashion publicist and full-time mom to the couple’s two sons, A.J., 7, and Chason, 6. She, too, declined to comment. But she’s been known to tout her caretaking role for Tiki. “I’m sort of a traditionalist where I don’t mind taking care of him,” she said in a 2006 interview.
Johnson can be seen posing with a smiling gal pal in a pic on her MySpace page. The two are wearing red short shorts and Giants jerseys emblazoned with Barber’s No. 21.
Tiki and Ginny began dating 16 years ago when both were students at the University of Virginia. Barber, who turns 35 today, was hired by NBC just after he retired in 2007 — when sources say he first met Johnson, who was working there as an intern. In his 10-year NFL career, Barber set nearly every career offensive record for the Giants, and made three Pro Bowls. His end run on Ginny with the much younger Johnson runs counter to the all-American Barber persona that fans and TV viewers know.
During Giants games, Tiki used to blow a kiss to Ginny in the stands every time he scored. In his 2007 memoir, “Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond,” Barber described the example he wanted to set for his kids. “I want to be an honorable man, because that’s what I want them both to be,” he wrote, noting, “My family is everything to me.”
