Olympic ski champ and California resident Bode Miller hatched an 11th-hour custody agreement with his Manhattan baby mama that includes “virtual” daddy time with his 14-month-old son through Skype.
But Miller’s ex, Sara McKenna, pooh-poohed the push by Miller to include Skype chats as part of their pact.
“He’s interested for 45 seconds, then he’s off,” McKenna said of their young son, Samuel Bode Miller McKenna, outside Manhattan court Monday.
“It’s an inadequate substitute for being there — you can’t hug him or touch him,” McKenna, 28, said.
But she said Miller had insisted on the Skype clause — which was part of a last-minute deal between the pair just minutes before Miller was scheduled to give potentially embarrassing testimony about his rocky relationship with Bode Jr. and her.
McKenna said that when she has custody, she already typically sets up her iPad on a table out of the tot’s reach a few times a week so he can see and hear his father through the online messaging and video system.
The seven-page agreement gives the parents shared custody of their son through Aug. 28, with McKenna remaining the primary caretaker.
The parties are due back in court in September after a psychologist evaluates the child and his interactions with McKenna and Miller.
The two met through the high-priced matchmaking service Kelleher and dated for three months. Shortly after McKenna found out she was pregnant, Miller had met his soon-to-be wife, professional volleyball player Morgan Beck.
Miller, 36, had not even met his then-3-month-old son last spring when his lawyer tried to take the child from his mother, claiming that New York was an “inconvenient forum” for the custody trial because he lived on the opposite coast.
McKenna, a former Marine and firefighter, moved to New York City to study at Columbia University on the GI Bill.
When Family Court Justice Fiordaliza Rodriguez asked the parents if there were any conditions such as lack of sleep or working a double shift that would impair their judgment regarding the parenting plan, Miller grumbled, “I haven’t slept.”
He flew in from California on a red-eye flight in case the agreement fell through and he had to testify.
Rodriguez approved the deal, finding, “It does appear to be in the child’s best interest inasmuch as it provides for substantial time with each parent.”
The six-time Olympic medal winner had no comment for reporters as he left court.