A former TV producer and her Emmy-winning ex-husband have been locked in a divorce battle worthy of its own prime-time show — unfortunately, a judge says, that show is a Greek tragedy.
“The wife in this case exhibits the classic ‘tragic flaw’ similar to some of the Greek tragic heroes; namely ‘rashness,’ ” Westchester Judge Linda Christopher wrote in an unusual recent ruling.
“However, she has not risen from the ashes to restore peace and harmony to her family. Her acts of impulse led to her downfall.”
Christopher was ruling against Blair Carney, 51, a former producer who was fighting her ex, Ed Staebler, for custody of their three young daughters.
Staebler, 49, is an award-winning cameraman for TV host Rachael Ray and has worked with Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres.
The couple, of the Westchester town of North Salem, had split in 2013 after the stay-at-home mom told Staebler she was leaving the family — via a text message sent shortly before their youngest girl’s performance in a production of “The Nutcracker,” court papers say.
“I am never planning to come back. This isn’t about a short-term vacation from them. I want no communication. They will depend solely on you,” the message said, according to the papers.
Two years later, she asked to move back home, claiming she had left because of an “Ambien-induced psychosis,” the papers say.
The judge rejected that claim and granted Staebler full custody of the girls, ages 13, 11 and 9, and ordered the jobless mom to pay him $27,000 in child support.
The judge noted Carney’s “tragic history of accidents.”
In 1991, she was in a car accident and suffered a tennis injury. Five years later, on a haunted-house production called “Chamber of Chills,” an armoire fell and smashed Carney’s shoulder.
In 2000, a worker pushed her into a wall while moving audio equipment at a hotel conference. In 2007, she got in a fender-bender. From 2008 to 2012, she fell down stairs twice. Lastly, she has undergone two surgeries in the past two years.
But Carney has lived extravagantly, using an inheritance to live in a $3,800-a-month hotel, buy herself a $40,000 Yukon Denali SUV and spend $20,000 a year on vacations, the judge found.
Staebler’s lawyer, Stephen Lewis, praised the “well-reasoned, fair decision,” but had a quibble: The judge found no hero in the Greek tragedy.
“I think he’s my hero,” he said of Staebler. “He’s taking care of these children.”
Carney’s lawyer did not return calls for comment.
