Supermodel Stephanie Seymour and her polo-playing husband aren’t just fighting over the kids in their messy divorce. They’re battling over the nannies, too.
Seymour and her billionaire, paper-magnate husband Peter Brant squared off in a Connecticut courtroom yesterday after a judge hauled the former Victoria’s Secret model in for missing a court-ordered drug test while vacationing in St. Barts with two of her kids.
Brant, who claims Seymour is an unfit mother to their three children, accused his wife of trying to intimidate the nannies, and forcing them to take her side.
Meanwhile, the former swimsuit pinup said her husband had used one of the baby sitters as a spy.
Seymour said the caretaker, Cora Driv, had been keeping a record of household activities in Seymour’s North Street home in Greenwich, jotting down notes and passing them on to Brant after the couple separated.
“I have some of her handwritten notes,” Seymour said. “She turned them into typed messages to make sure they were just so.”
Seymour, 40, said the nanny quit last year without notice after Christmas, only to resurface in Brant’s home nearby.
“My children told me, ‘Cora’s back. Cora’s back at the house,’ ” Seymour said. “I called the house and she picked up the phone. I spoke to Peter about it and he said, ‘Yeah, what’s wrong with that?’ ”
Brant said Seymour had also violated their right-of-first-refusal agreement by letting the kids stay with nannies, relatives or friends instead of first asking him to look after them, a notion Judge Michael Shay rejected.
Brant is challenging Seymour’s custody of their children: Peter Jr., 15, Harry, 12, and Lilly, 4.
Although Seymour’s alleged drinking and drug use are critical points of contention in her split from Brant, 62, Shay put off a hearing on the issue until Aug. 6.
Seymour and Brant had previously been ordered to submit to the tests as part of their split.
Seymour, a top model since she was 16, was a Victoria’s Secret Angel and a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. She dated Axl Rose in the early 1990s and starred in two Guns N’ Roses videos before meeting Brant, who was married and had five children.
Brant — who collects art, owns thoroughbred racehorses and publishes the magazines Interview and Art in America — made his fortune with his White Birch Paper Co., which operates six pulp and paper mills.
Brant was jailed briefly for tax evasion in 1990.