As sports gambling grows, an athlete’s divorce is now more than just gossip By Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune May 17, 2019 at 12:10 pm I wish I could say the pending dissolution of Ben and Julianna Zobrist’s marriage was nobody’s business but theirs. I can’t. This isn’t just because it’s two celebrities — he a Cubs World Series MVP and she a Christian pop musician — who talked up their marriage in the national media. It’s also not just because Zobrist’s leave of absence affects the Cubs. There was the initial mystery of why he was out, now followed by uncertainty over when he will return. Plus there’s the question of whether his head will be clear enough to perform at peak efficiency should he come back. News of this sort has always been fodder for the sports pages, sports radio and gossip columns.