THERAPY: Ashley Morrison shops yesterday after The Post found hubby Rob at the bar. (Douglas Healey)
LIVING IT UP: Jennifer Rainville, the former fiancée of WCBS’s Rob Morrison, steps out in Midtown yesterday. (
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A former TV reporter embroiled in the scandal that disgraced CBS anchorman Rob Morrison yesterday denied ever being his mistress.
Media consultant Jennifer Rainville, who works for state Sen. Jeff Klein, was engaged to Morrison until 2002 — but hasn’t seen him since they broke things off, a source close to her told The Post.
“After she broke off the engagement, she found out that he was cheating on her with Ashley,” the source said, referring to Morrison’s wife, CBS “MoneyWatch” anchor Ashley Morrison, whom he allegedly choked last Sunday in a vodka-fueled rage.
After Rainville and Morrison split, the source said, “She had no contact or relationship with him.”
Morrison, 44 — who was arrested over the choking incident and stepped down from his anchor spot at CBS last week — never hit Rainville during their relationship, but he certainly “liked to drink” back then, the source said.
“It was over 10 years ago,” the source added. “It’s part of her past.”
Rainville became a central figure in the Morrison scandal last week due to her romantic history with the newsman — and also because of the parallels between their romance and the plot of her steamy self-published novel, in which a young female producer has an affair with a violent, alcoholic newsman.
In the book, “Trance of Insignificance,” the “hunky” newsman leaves the protagonist to marry a fellow newscaster — just like Morrison’s wife, Ashley — but continues to cheat on his spouse with the young producer.
Rainville, who worked at NBC while Morrison was an anchor there, told mediabistro.com that her book is a “juicy and fun puzzle for those who are in the news business” — and hinted, “Many of my experiences served as the inspiration.”
“I’m not going to have anything to say,” she told a reporter yesterday while enjoying a lunch with a few pals at the Waldorf- Astoria. She also went on a tour of the luxury hotel.
Morrison’s lawyer, Robert Skovgaard, declined to comment, other than to write in an e-mail, “The media need to let the Morrisons handle this personal family matter privately.”
Meanwhile, Morrison’s humiliated wife sought comfort in retail therapy yesterday at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ, where she checked out pairs of heels at Nordstrom but left without buying.
The 40-year-old newswoman left the mall with a bag from Toys “R” Us containing the board game Operation.
Morrison, who denies physically assaulting his wife, allegedly told cops, “I’m f–king killing” her the night he was arrested, police said.
Ashley Morrison told authorities the anchorman had physically abused her throughout their 11-year marriage, records show.
While he worked at NBC, she bugged her husband’s car and allegedly caught him on tape talking about using “sex toys” with a pretty assistant, source said.