A-Rod Said His Blended Family With J.Lo Is The "Most Important Thing" In His Life

• Alex Rodriguez talked his blended family with Jennifer Lopez (opens in new tab) in a new interview.
• Lopez shares twins Emme and Max with ex Marc Anthony, while Rodriguez shares sisters Natasha and Ella with his ex Cynthia Scurtis.
• "That is by far the most important thing in my life, my two beautiful girls, and now our four kids," Rodriguez said.

Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, and children Natasha, Ella, Emme, and Max (opens in new tab) are one of the cutest celebrity families out there, and in a new interview, Rodriguez opened up about how the parents make it work. Lopez shares twins Emme and Max with ex Marc Anthony, while Rodriguez shares sisters Natasha and Ella with his ex Cynthia Scurtis. Speaking on the Raising the Bar podcast, as Entertainment Tonight reports (opens in new tab), Rodriguez called his blended family "the most important thing in [his] life."

A-Rod shared how he and Scurtis, who he called "a great mother," explained their separation and their subsequent new relationships to their children. "We positioned what could be perceived as a negative into a positive, by saying to the girls, look, now you don't have one house, you have two houses," Rodriguez said. "You don't have two parents, you have four parents. Lucky you, the more the merrier."

While managing his blended family "takes some navigating," it's made him a "more compassionate, more considerate" person, he shared. "When I want to do things at Christmas with the girls, I may start asking for, not permission, but proactively in July I may be talking about Christmas, versus if I was in a different state of mind, I would drop it Dec. 15 and say, 'Hey, Cynthia, can I have the kids?'" Rodriguez said. "So it's been a really, really nice experience for us. I'm very friendly with [Cynthia's husband] Angel, he's wonderful with my girls. I think having four good people at the table—well, three good people and me."

A-Rod further explained why parenting is his number one priority. "My father left me when I was 10 years old and I still have a hole in my heart because he left at that age. It was around the age of 11 that I made a promise to myself that I was going to be a great father whenever that moment came," he said. "That is by far the most important thing in my life, my two beautiful girls, and now our four kids."