Chelsea Freeman on husband Freddie Freeman's World Series run, son's health journey
Chelsea Freeman is opening up about husband and Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman's Most Valuable Player-winning performance in the 2024 World Series, and her family's support behind the scenes.
In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" conducted ahead of Game 5 of the World Series, the mother of three spoke about her husband's incredible run, her son Max Freeman's recent health battle, and the Dodgers' supportive community.
"The craziest thing is that he's hurt right now, so he's playing with a sprained ankle, and he had a fractured finger and all these other things. So our standards were very low," Chelsea Freeman said of her husband. "The fact that he's played as incredibly well as he is is just like an absolute miracle. It's really hard to even have words for the things that he's doing."
In Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers clinched their second World Series title in the last five years by beating the Yankees 7-6 at Yankee Stadium.
After a historic season, including setting a home run record, Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers' first baseman, was named the series' Most Valuable Player.
"He's such a perfectionist, so he doesn't think he performed as well as he would have liked to, so for him to finally go out on this note with all the things that he's doing, just absolutely incredible," Chelsea Freeman said of Freddie's World Series run.
In Game 1 of the series, Freddie Freeman hit the first-ever World Series walk-off grand slam home run.
Chelsea Freeman, a mom of the three sons, said the couple's eldest child, 8-year-old Charlie, who plays baseball himself, watched his dad's heroic moment in the Dodgers kids' room.
"He said all the kids were watching around, huddled around the TV, thinking, 'We're about to lose.' You know, really hoping not, but two outs in the 10th inning and we're down," Chelsea Freeman said. "Freddie hit that ball, and [Charlie] said they all just started going nuts, like jumping on him, like jumping up and down, like it was just the coolest moment ever."
In addition to Freddie Freeman overcoming his injuries this season, the Freeman family has also faced personal challenges at home. This summer, Chelsea shared that their young son Max was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome.
In an Aug. 1 Instagram post, she wrote that Max "rapidly declined and went into full body paralysis" but that they were able to bring him to a hospital to "reinforce his lungs."
She shared in the post that after some of the "hardest and scariest days" for their family, he was extubated "from his breathing tube and taken off of the ventilator." She also asked for prayers in her emotional update.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome is a "rare neurological disorder in which a person's immune system mistakenly attacks part of their peripheral nervous system."
Chelsea shared that Max is now "doing much better," and is in physical therapy.
"As far as his Guillain-Barré – he's still doing PT – all of that, but I mean, his improvements have been, like, absolutely mind-blowing," she said. "Our PTs, our neurologists, our doctors are all like just thrilled for how well he's been doing."
She said the family has also found an incredible support system within the Dodgers organization.
"The Dodgers, from the beginning, they were so supportive to us and our family and to Max – I felt it like every wife in that organization reached out to me…I just felt so bonded," she said. "We're a family and we know that we could count on them for anything and they have our backs."
She continued, "That's why I think it's so cool that Freddie finally gets to have his shining moment and give back to them and the fans and the Dodgers in general, because they were just absolutely incredible with us throughout this whole process."
Ahead of the Dodgers' win Wednesday, Chelsea Freeman said that given all that her family has been through, winning this World Series with the Dodgers would be like a fairy-tale ending to the season.
"We've done it once before, but Freddie's from California, so to do it in front of his family, and this fan base and this organization that's been there for us and supported us all year, it would be just absolutely, absolutely incredible to do it with the Dodgers and get the ring," she said.
