Thief. Liar. Gold digger.
During her nasty, two-year divorce battle with Giants star Michael Strahan, Jean Strahan was called plenty of names.
But when a Jersey judge last week slammed the grid great as evasive, untruthful and “not credible” – then upheld a $15.3 million prenup that Strahan’s lawyer had drawn up – Jean felt vindicated.
“There are a lot of Giants fans out there – these people love their athletes no matter what,” Jean told The Post in an exclusive interview.
“So through all of this, Michael could say what he wanted, and because he was a celebrity, people believed him . . . I was the horrible woman trying to ruin him and take all the money.
“I decided to put up a wall, ignore the negative comments.”
The judge in the case heard one bombshell allegation after another: Strahan whisked mistresses, including Nicole “Cupcake” D’Oliveira, out of town for romantic weekend liaisons and he claimed he couldn’t remember his wife’s birthday or the many love letters they’d exchanged.
The mudslinging started on March 14, 2005, when Michael, backed by two powerful New Jersey law firms and a p.r. firm, went public with plans to divorce Jean, claiming she’d stolen money from him.
“Suddenly, I was crazy. I was a thief, a liar,” she recalled.
“People would walk by my house. I’d be outside and hear them say, ‘Oh, there’s the lady who threw her husband out.’ I had to stop myself from yelling out, ‘I’m not the one who got him a girlfriend, who told him to walk out on two newborn babies!'”
At one court hearing, she recounted an incident in which she said Strahan had hit her before they were married.
“That was the hardest day of all,” she said. “I know people were saying, ‘Why did she stay with him?’ . . . And then, in our case, at least, he promised to get help, and he really did. The Giants recommended a counselor, we went, and he never hit me again.”
It only got uglier when the case went to trial in June 2006.
Most famously, Jean was accused of “outing” her husband after he testified that he couldn’t tell if a love letter he had written was addressed to “Jean” or to “John.” Jean was asked about the testimony outside of court, and said that her husband moved in with a male friend after their split, adding, “You could say an alternative lifestyle sprouted.”
Strahan’s lawyer angrily denied the insinuation.
“Look,” Jean recounted, rolling her eyes. “I was asked to comment on what Michael said in court, and I said he enjoyed an ‘alternative’ lifestyle. To me, that meant he preferred living in the city and hanging out at clubs with his friend to sitting home with me and the babies.”
Jean said she’s looking forward to a future unmarked by court dates.
“For almost the first time since the girls were born, I can concentrate solely on being their mom,” she said, smiling.
Additional reporting by Jana Winter