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BRUCE’S ‘LOVER’: MY HUSBAND TRYSTED THE FACTS

Bruce Springsteen’s alleged mistress said her estranged husband went public with claims of a steamy affair to keep her from getting the “upper hand” in their nasty split.

In court papers, head-turning New Jersey housewife Ann Kelly says her husband, Arthur, named the “Boss” as the other man in their divorce only to get even after she got a restraining order against him.

Ann Kelly, 44, also hinted that her long-rumored romance with Springsteen, 59, had come up in conversations with her husband well before he filed for divorce on March 28.

“I told him the allegations of the affair were not true, as I had told him previously,” Ann claimed in papers filed in Ocean County Family Court.

“I asked him why he had said such lies.”

According to Ann, Arthur “told me he filed those accusations of adultery because he had to ‘pull the reigns [sic] in on me’ because I filed [a restraining order] against him for alleged violence.

“He told me he was concerned I would have the ‘upper hand’ in court, so he did something he thought would to [sic] even the scales.”

Arthur Kelly, 45, has denied any violence toward his wife and has stood by the Springsteen allegations.

Ann Kelly’s cozy relationship with Springsteen had for years raised eyebrows at the high-priced Red Bank, NJ, gym where they met and regularly worked out together.

But Springsteen’s alleged gal pal insists she’s no tramp, and said Arthur’s claims “were supported by no facts [and] are false.”

Ann Kelly submitted her court papers as part of a motion to seal the divorce file. That motion was denied by the court earlier this week.

jeane.macintosh@nypost.com