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‘SWAP’ TO A CHOP FOR TV WIFE

A former New Jersey beauty queen and “Wife Swap” reality star has been busted for stabbing her husband with a kitchen knife in a furious fight, The Post has learned.

“I was so scared I just closed my eyes [and struck him],” said mom of three Jamie Czerniawski, 30, who claims she acted in self-defense.

“If I didn’t do it, I would’ve been dead,” she told The Post.

She was charged with aggravated assault after “stabbing/slashing” husband Charles in their Freehold home May 26, causing him “serious bodily injury,” according to papers filed in township court.

The blond stunner — a cheerleading coach who was a former Miss Teen New Jersey — is out on $75,000 bail. The case has been turned over to the Monmouth County prosecutor.

The couple took out dueling restraining orders.

Charles, 34, spent two days in intensive care, lost four pints of blood and hasn’t regained use of his right arm.

His lawyer, Edward Fradkin, said his client “vehemently denies” Jamie’s self-defense claim and has given “a detailed account of the true events” to the court.

In a tearful interview yesterday, Jamie said the 1 a.m. Memorial Day weekend fight started when they returned from the beach and she got a phone call from a mutual male friend.

A jealous Charles, she said, grabbed her wrist and said, “If I can’t have you, no one can.”

He pinned her against the kitchen island, but Jamie said she broke free and grabbed a knife. When Charles grabbed her and pinned her shoulders to the floor with his knees, she said, she struck him with the blade.

She said she initially didn’t tell cops her side of the story because she “didn’t want him to get in trouble.”

Just days before, Jamie had updated a Web page that features several pictures of her mugging with the kids and her husband.

Now, she said, Charles has cleaned out their bank account and cut the family off financially.

“I don’t know who to trust anymore,” she said. “I feel like he’s turned all our friends against me.”

In 2006, the couple was featured in an episode of ABC’s spouse-switching reality show, “Wife Swap.”

Jamie traded places with Anna, a tattooed Arizona mom who performs in freak shows.

perry.chiaramonte@nypost.com