Judge berates ‘callous’ wife for YouTube stunt in divorce battle

A BRITISH woman who tried to humiliate her husband with internet videos during their high-profile divorce hit back yesterday after being branded by a New York judge as a “callous” star of a melodrama.

Playwright and former actress Tricia Walsh-Smith, who was married to the head of a huge Broadway theatre operator, put videos of herself on YouTube to spill the secrets of their marriage in an apparent effort to gain an advantage in their divorce battle.

But Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Harold Beeler granted Philip Smith a divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment — and heavily criticised Walsh-Smith’s video stunt in a nine-page ruling yesterday.

Her online videos, which were viewed more than three million times, included a statement that the couple never had sex in nine years of marriage.

Judge Beeler described it as “a calculated and callous campaign to embarrass and humiliate her husband” and to pressure him into settling the divorce case on more favourable terms than were stated in their prenuptial agreement.

“She has attempted to turn the life of her husband into a soap opera by directing, writing, acting in and producing a melodrama,” he said.

The judge said Smith “has been publicly humiliated and embarrassed to an unprecedented extent”.

He added that while Walsh-Smith “has thrived on being in the public spotlight”, the respected and private Smith “has suffered tremendously from this attention”, including “suffering heart problems”.

The judge ruled the prenuptial agreement, signed three weeks before the couple’s wedding in October 1999, was valid.

Walsh-Smith, 52, must now leave their Park Avenue apartment on New York City’s Upper East Side within 30 days and Smith, president of the Shubert Organisation, the largest theatre owner on Broadway, must pay her $750,000 (about €473,500) — far less than she wanted.

“Had the defendant not posted her videos on YouTube, a case could be made that her previous marital misconduct did not rise to the level of cruel and inhuman treatment, a claim that, ironically, she herself made on YouTube,” the judge said.

After the ruling, 76-year-old Smith, who was still wearing his wedding ring, said he was “sorry it had to come to this” and added: “I’m happy with the decision of the judge, and I’m happy with the outcome.”

But Walsh-Smith told reporters: “I think it’s disgusting. I’m really, really disappointed with the decision.”

She said Smith was “basically throwing me out on the street”.

She added: “I think it totally sucks. It’s a horrible prenup. I’d be better off in Baghdad. Bush is bringing democracy to Iraq. He should bring it to New York.”