NFL player Chad Ochocinco and Evelyn Lozada pose with Motorola Xoom at the Maxim Party Powered by Motorola Xoom at Centennial Hall at Fair Park on February 5, 2011 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images for Motorola Xoom)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Chad Johnson’s divorce is final from reality TV star Evelyn Lozada, a month after his arrest on a domestic battery charge.
Johnson’s attorney, Adam Swickle, confirmed on Wednesday that the couple who wed on July 4 are now divorced.
Johnson was competing for a roster spot on the Miami Dolphins when Lozada accused him of head-butting her during an argument and filed for divorce. The Dolphins promptly cut the 34-year-old Johnson, who is still not on an NFL roster after stellar seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and a not-so-great year with the New England Patriots.
In an interview with Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” scheduled to air Wednesday, Johnson says he’s taking anger management classes.
“I’m trying to find out how can I channel my anger when I’m in situations to where I would pop off,” he says. “How can I diffuse those situations, trigger points?”
Swickle said the divorce was governed by a confidential prenuptial agreement.
“Being married, being a husband, being a lover, was an honor,” Johnson says in the interview. “And I lost that. And you know that saying … ‘You never know what you have until it’s gone.’ And now I finally know what they mean. I lost two of the things that really meant the most to me. That someone completed my world, completed me, period. But I just hadn’t made that transition to where I needed to be the best man that I could, or best husband that I could. I didn’t make it all the way, fully.”
The receiver has said he legally changed his last name back to Johnson from the playful Ochocinco because of his marriage to Lozada, who stars on TV’s “Basketball Wives.”
In the interview, he says he takes full responsibility for the altercation.
“Chad has to work on Chad,” he says. “Chad has to go deep down inside and figure out where he went wrong. At what point did you lose focus on what’s most important? Like especially the game of football. . At some point I had drifted off track away from that and being one of the best at what I do.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
