‘SIDE’ WORK: Allegedly abused wife Ashley Morrison, also a journalist, holds The Post in a cameo (above left) with Jude Law in the flick “Side Effects.” (
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Veteran anchorman Rob Morrison resigned in shame from CBS yesterday over his drunken, wife-choking arrest — and then bellied up to a Connecticut bar to drown out his sorrows.
“I just lost my job today,” Morrison sighed to The Post inside a Buffalo Wild Wings saloon in Stamford, as he searched for answers at the bottom of a Bud Light pint. “I could not go on the air again,” lamented Morrison, 44, who was bending his elbow with a very shaky hand.
The disgraced “News at Noon” host downed at least three beers at the chain restaurant during happy hour. When asked if he is depressed — as wife Ashley told cops — Morrison said, “I see a psychiatrist once a week,” and added that he suffers from anxiety.
He left after 90 minutes with a takeout order of hot wings — and said he doubts he’ll ever be able to work in New York journalism again.
Buffalo Wild Wings has become Morrison’s favorite haunt since he posted $100,000 bail following Sunday’s arrest.
At the time, he agreed to “not use or possess an intoxicant or controlled substances,” court records show. His lawyer, Robert Skovgaard, claimed last night that the order was nullified by a judge’s bail order on Tuesday.
But staffers and customers at the restaurant said they saw Morrison on Sunday and Monday slugging back Jameson Irish Whiskey and Bud Light before the bail terms changed.
He was staying at a hotel across the street — since he’s barred from the million-dollar home he shares with Ashley.
As he sat with The Post yesterday, the handsome, longtime local newsman blamed Ashley, a “CBS Money” anchor, for allegedly striking the first blow during an argument early Sunday morning after they watched “Mystic Pizza.”
He said Ashley, a petite, 115-pound blonde, bashed him in the face with a remote control — giving him a bloody nose and lip.
The 180-pound former Marine suggested she has abused him for years, and he denied choking her with both hands on the couch, as she told cops. When asked about the noticeable red marks on her neck indicated in the police report, he said, “What marks?”
Morrison denied ever threatening to harm their 7-year-old son, Jack, even though in a police report Ashley’s brother said Morrison warned that “he would shoot their son in front of her and then shoot her” if she ever left him.
Cops contacted Connecticut child-protective services over that claim, and they expect to interview Morrison soon, a source said.
He teared up when talking about wanting to stay married to Ashley for Jack’s sake. He said he feared she’d divorce him and turn him into a “part-time” dad.
Morrison insisted he still loved Ashley — who sources said cost him his job at WNBC/Channel 4 in 2008 when she sent an e-mail blaming his colleagues for being complicit in his affair with a co-worker.
Ashley denied sending the e-mail or pointing her finger at his co-workers.
Another source said Ashley, after suspecting he was cheating, hired a private investigator to confirm the affair.
Ashley told cops that Morrison was wasted on vodka during Sunday’s incident — and said that it was just the latest in a series of attacks resulting in Morrison being arrested at least three times, the police report said.
When he was arrested Sunday, he drunkenly told an officer, “I’m f–king killing her” if he were to be released, according to a police report. Morrison also allegedly cursed at the officers, taunted them about the handcuffs not being tight enough and called one cop “Sergeant Douchebag.”
Ashley told cops he had been abusing her starting three months after they tied the knot.
A source close to the family said Ashley went to a hospital emergency room after his first attack just months after the couple married 11 years ago.
When The Post asked about Ashley’s allegations, Morrison answered: “I would have no idea.”
He then asked a reporter if she had ever heard of a syndrome of men being beaten by women.
“Don’t always assume it’s the woman that calls the cops,” Morrison said.
But just one of the seven visits police made to the Morrison’s apartment in Manhattan was in response to a call by Rob, sources said.
All of the other calls, including one that lead to a Morrison assault arrest, were made by Ashley. And most of those incidents involved drinking by Morrison, sources said.
“He was an ‘alky.’ He was a drunk. That’s probably his biggest problem,” said a staffer at the Morrisons’ former apartment building on the Upper West Side.
“The only odd thing about them was that she kept calling the cops all the time, and he kept coming back,” that staffer said.
Ashley, while talking to Darien cops, told them her “husband is on medication for depression, has attended AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings, yet was consuming vodka earlier in the evening and became belligerent toward her.”
Morrison yesterday would not comment when asked if he has attended AA meetings.
Morrison also was asked why Ashley’s mom, Martha Risk, who lives in Indiana, called cops Sunday night — after he phoned her during the fight.
Morrison said Martha never liked him “from the start.”
Ashley’s brother, Dr. Gregory Risk, called that a lame excuse.
“Sure, it’s always your mother-in-law’s fault when the cops come to your house nine times and your wife goes to the ER for stitches,” Risk said.
The police report revealed that Risk, an emergency-room doctor in North Carolina, also was on the phone with the Morrisons Sunday morning.
Ashley “told him that R. Morrison choked her on the couch and she struck R. Morrison with a remote control in self-defense,” the report said. “G. Risk also stated that while he was on the phone with A. Morrison, she stated that R. Morrison was shoving her.”
A source familiar with the case said yesterday that the Risk family has promised to share with cops photos of Ashley with past injuries suffered at Morrison’s hands.
They will also provide “damning” and “chilling” voice messages Morrison has left the family following those attacks, the source said.
Morrison faces more than six years in prison if convicted of the charges of choking, threatening and disorderly conduct.
After his arraignment Tuesday — where he was issued the stay-away order — Morrison yesterday morning traveled to New York, where he had a long meeting with CBS brass.
Both sides, Morrison said, agreed that it would be best if he resigned.
“My family is my first and only priority right now, and I have informed CBS 2 management that I need to put all of my time and energy into making sure that I do what’s best for my wife and son,” Morrison said in a written statement after resigning from the station, where he hosted the morning show and a noon program.
“I very much appreciate the opportunity that CBS 2 has given me, and I thank them for accepting my decision.”
Earlier this month, Ashley posted a video still on Facebook of herself and actor Jude Law appearing in the Steven Soderbergh thriller “Side Effects,” which was released on Feb. 8.
“Side Effects with Jude Law is out today! I got to yell at Jude Law and got paid to do it :) I sooooo should have been an actress!! Lol!!” she gushed in the Facebook caption.
Ashley had a cameo role in the movie — filmed last May — as a news reporter.
Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley and Amber Sutherland