She’s gone from “Gossip Girl” to bankruptcy — blowing her TV fortune on a nasty trans-Atlantic custody fight.
Actress Kelly Rutherford (pictured) — who played Upper East Side society mom Lily van der Woodsen on the show about privileged Manhattan teens — was living a charmed life last year, pulling in a hefty $40,000-a-month salary from the popular CW show and living in a $1 million West Hollywood bungalow.
Then the bottom fell out.
Rutherford’s estranged German husband claimed custody of their two young children after they visited him in France last summer and her show was canceled in winter after a six-season run.
Now Rutherford, 44, is essentially homeless and living with a friend in Manhattan — filing bankruptcy last month after having been unemployed since March, according to court documents.
Her income plummeted to only $1,279.33 in the months after the popular TV series wrapped in December.
And the blond beauty’s current monthly expenses of $1,760 are keeping her in the red. The former A-lister spends $750 on food, $250 on transportation and $500 on unspecified “child activities,” legal papers show.
Rutherford’s nasty divorce and custody battle with businessman Daniel Giersch has drained her bank accounts, records show. She’s over $2 million in debt, according to the bankruptcy filings, and has a meager $23,000 to her name — half in a business checking account and the other half in clothing and furniture, including a $500 child’s-bedroom set that now sits unused.
Last August, a judge ordered that her their son, Hermes, 6, and daughter, Helena, 4, remain in France with their dad.
Her biggest financial blow is legal bills from the custody fight. She owes $1.5 million to a small army of attorneys plus a hefty $10,000 for court transcripts.
Rutherford has been making ends meet with the help of family and friends, the court records show. Fellow “Gossip Girl” actress Caroline Lagerfelt, who played Celia “CeCe” Rhodes on the show, lent her $20,000 last June.
She’s also drawn down over $593,000 in retirement savings, sold $65,477 in jewelry and accessories and unloaded the California two-bedroom for $980,000.
But she still owes $385,000 to the IRS and is almost $80,000 behind on American Express and Citibank credit-card bills.
Rutherford has gone public with her emotional child-custody battle. She burst into sobs on “The View” while pledging to never stop fighting to get her children back.
The current custody arrangement requires a tedious, transatlantic trek to visit the tots.
The actress told the bankruptcy court that she has expectations of returning to work. “Debtor may have an increase in expenses due to a possible rent expense if further work is obtained,” Rutherford notes in the legal papers, filed on May 20.