HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Al Reynolds is speaking out for the first time since his split from Star Jones, saying it feels like “Dump on Al Month.”
In a message posted Tuesday on MySpace, Reynolds says the end of the couple’s relationship is devastating.
“I know in my heart that I entered my marriage with love and the best of intentions and leave it with great sadness that it didn’t work,” he writes.
Jones, 46, filed for divorce from Reynolds, 37, last month. The couple married on Nov. 13, 2004 in a well-publicized wedding at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City. Jones has since admitted she regrets inviting the media to the couple’s ceremony.
Reynolds did not discuss the reasoning behind the split, but he did reveal his disappointment with the media.
“I have been called a gigolo, a freeloader, unemployed, a sham and many other things that don’t bear repeating,” he says. “People on television, radio and the internet have spoken disparagingly of my life, my sexuality, my career and my integrity.”
“The media has barraged me (at my home), my friends, my family (including my 79 year old mother), my college classmates, my students and my professional colleagues,” he adds. “Yet, despite this intense level of provocation, I have said nothing.”
Despite the media onslaught, Reynolds says he has no intentions of getting into a war of words.
“As much as I want to defend myself, it seems like a silly and futile exercise,” he writes. “It’s clear that the media doesn’t want to let the truth get in the way of a good story. I hate to ruin their fun. I take great comfort in the fact that my loved ones and those people who really know me continue to love and respect me.”
Reynolds notes that he was a successful Wall Street banker prior to meeting Jones, but that he grew up in a “mobile home” and understands “the struggles of the working class.” In the future, he says he hopes “to empower and enlighten working class Americans who are often ‘left behind’ by traditional financial advice.” Reynolds says he is currently finishing up his doctorate in organizational leadership and teaching at Florida Memorial University.
“What I want people to know is that I am not the caricature portrayed by the media. I am complex, contradictory and capable of great intelligence but also remarkable stupidity,” he writes. “In other words, I am a human being. To me, labels are for clothes, not people. So … Please don’t try to define me; don’t try to categorize me; and most of all, don’t label me. Instead, JUST GET TO KNOW ME. And if you see me, just call me Al.”
