(Randi Radcliff/Sipa USA)
WOES: Singer Mindy McCready, after severe alcohol and drug problems, killed her dog and herself at her Arkansas home. (
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Disgraced former Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens offered a pathetic condolence yesterday to the family of Mindy McCready, the singer who allegedly had been his teenage mistress — saying he had met her “just a few times” even though they reportedly had a decade-long affair.
McCready, 37 — a country music singer reportedly wooed by the married Clemens when she was 15 and he was 28 with two children — committed suicide Sunday in the same spot on the porch of her Arkansas home where her boyfriend was mysteriously shot to death a month before.
“The few times that I had met her and her manager/agent they were extremely nice,” Clemens said in a written statement.
“I had heard over time that she was trying to get peace and direction in her life,” added Clemens, who is in Kissimmee, Fla., at Houston Astros spring training.
Asked directly by The Post about McCready, Clemens only responded, “Like I said, I feel really sad about that. I’ve released a statement.’’
The alleged affair came to light in 2008, when Clemens became the subject of a Justice Department probe for allegedly using performing-enhancing drugs.
The “Ten Thousand Angels” singer confirmed the trysts — and later insisted they began after she turned 18.
McCready’s suicide — which left her sons Zander, 6, and Zayne, 10 months, without a mom — followed years of drug and alcohol abuse and suicide attempts.
It also came after a month of turmoil in her personal life.
On Jan. 13, David Wilson, 34, her music-producer boyfriend and Zayne’s dad, died from a gunshot wound at the same house.
His death was originally ruled a suicide — but local authorities began investigating his death as suspicious.
McCready claimed she found the fatal bullet in one of her dogs’ mouths — and denied having any involvement in the death. She was home at the time.
“Oh my God, no,” she later told NBC’s “Dateline” when asked if she shot him.
“He was my life. We were each other’s life.”
On Jan. 30, Zander’s dad, Billy McKnight — who in 2005 beat McCready to within an inch of her life, officials said — filed legal papers seeking primary custody of Zander, or at least visitation.
“My client’s main issue was concern for the child’s safety, particularly with Mindy’s past suicide attempts,” as well as “concern” about her reaction to Wilson’ s death, said McKnight’s lawyer, William White.
She was then involuntarily committed by court order — at her father’s urging — to a mental-health facility for “alcohol and drug treatment and mental-health issues in early February, White said.
Her two sons were removed from her custody and placed into foster care. She was released more than a week ago.
On Sunday afternoon, police received a report of gunshots at McCready’s house, Sheriff Marty Moss said.
At the same time someone else contacted cops to report receiving “messages from Ms. McCready of a concerning nature,” Moss said.
McCready was dead when police arrived. She had killed her dog first.
“As sad as it is, it didn’t come as a major shock,” McKnight said on the “Today” show yesterday. “Because she’s just been battling demons for so long.”