Chelsea Freeman on husband Freddie Freeman's World Series run, son's health journey
Chelsea Freeman is opening up about husband Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman's impressive performance in the MLB 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," she said.
"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," she said of her husband who has hit a home run in every World Series game this season despite battling injuries, including an ankle injury in the playoffs.
"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," she said.
Chelsea Freeman also touched on the Freeman family's reaction to watching the Dodgers' first baseman's historic, first-ever World Series walk-off grand slam home run in the first game of the series.
She said her oldest son, 8-year-old Charlie, who plays baseball himself, watched his dad's heroic moment in the Dodgers kid's room.
"The Dodgers have the most insane kids room…So, he was in the kid's room [with] Brandon and Max," she said, referring to her two 3-year-old sons that she shares with Freddie. "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.'"
"Freddie hit that ball. And he said they all just started going nuts, like jumping on him, like jumping up and down, like it was just the coolest moment ever."
Despite overcoming injuries to see monumental success on the field, the Freeman family has faced new personal challenges at home this season. This summer, Chelsea shared that their son Max was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome.
In an 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 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, the 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 or neurologists or doctors are all like just thrilled for how well he's been doing."
She said the family has 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 continued, "We're a family and we know that we could count on them for anything and they have our backs. 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."
The Dodgers currently sit one win away from winning the World Series, hoping to topple the New York Yankees in a series which has seen some of the biggest names in the sport competing on baseball's biggest stage.
Despite sharing the field with names like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, it is Freddy Freeman, a star in his own right, who is heavily favored to win the World Series MVP, should the Dodgers win the series.
"I mean, you couldn't even write this," said Chelsea Freeman. "From what we've gone through this year. I mean, it would be a full 360. Obviously, there's not even words – it would just be absolutely incredible to win the World Series and to do it with the Dodgers."
Chelsea Freeman said everything the family has gone through would make this World Series win extra special.
"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."
