Madonna has denied she is getting a divorce or having an affair with New York Yankee baseball star Alex Rodriguez.

"My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce," Madonna said in a statement posted today on people.com.

"I know Alex Rodriguez through Guy Oseary, who manages both of us. I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study."

Meanwhile, Rodriguez's wife will file for divorce tomorrow, according to media reports.

Cynthia Rodriguez, who married the New York Yankees star in 2002, says the marriage is over because of the All-Star third baseman's extramarital affairs, according to reports that appeared today on the web sites of Houston television station KTRK and The Miami Herald.

The reports come just days after Alex Rodriguez was linked to Madonna in various media outlets and Cynthia Rodriguez's subsequent visit to the Paris home of rocker Lenny Kravitz, who said she came to France to escape the media frenzy in New York and denied that anything improper had happened.

Houston lawyer Earle Lilly, who said he was hired by Cynthia Rodriguez last week to launch the divorce case, told KTRK the star's "relationship with Madonna was the final straw for Mrs Rodriguez."

Rodriguez's wife also is represented by lawyers Maurice Kutner and Anthony Sabatino, both of Miami, and John Van Ness of Houston, the Herald reported.

"She feels that she has exhausted every opportunity to salvage the marriage, and that Alex has emotionally abandoned her and the children and has left her with no choice but to divorce him," Kutner told the newspaper.

The former Cynthia Scurtis and Rodriguez were married Nov 2, 2002, in Dallas. They have two children, Natasha Alexander and Ella Alexander, who was born April 21.

The suit is expected to be filed early tomorrow in Dade County Family Court.

Lilly did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.

AP