#New York Times writer blindsided by divorce from hedge fund hubby

Hamptons socialite Alex Kuczynski has had a bad year.

She spent weeks battling the coronavirus; her father, the former president of Peru, is in failing health and under house arrest during a corruption probe — and her billionaire husband suddenly dumped her and has lately taken up with one of their family friends.

Charles Stevenson Jr. filed for divorce against The New York Times writer in state Supreme Court in Suffolk County, L.I., blindsiding her by serving legal papers six days before Christmas at an airport in Idaho, a source told The Post.

“Alex is so incredibly hurt,” one of her friends told The Post. “She’s been a wonderful wife and mother. No one knows why he wants to get rid of her so quickly.”

Others welcomed the news.

“Thank f—ing God,” a relative said. “He’s enjoying being surrounded by all of his children again. He’s free, it’s over.” Stevenson’s adult children had stayed away from the couple’s home in Southampton because of Kuczynski, who “was tolerated” by the clan, the relative said.

The picture-perfect 18-year union raised some society eyebrows early on, according to at least three confidantes. They said Kuczynski, not long after the 2002 nuptials, told them that Stevenson had laid down certain conditions — that she commit to having sex with him at least four times a week and to not gain more than five pounds during their marriage.

“She had to sleep with him a certain amount of times per week,” said one friend.

Lawyers for both sides refused to comment on any such agreement. Sources close to both Kuczynski and Stevenson denied there was a sex quota or weight mandate.

Within months of being served with the divorce papers, Kuczynski tested positive for COVID-19 and went into lockdown with the couple’s children in Idaho, while Stevenson jetted to an isolated ecological retreat he owns in the western state where he could be alone with his new flame, the friend told The Post.

The divorce promises to be a blockbuster, with Kuczynski’s lawyers already calling the pre-nup “horrendous” — and the proceedings did not get off to an auspicious start this week in a Central Islip courthouse.

When both parties arrived for a hearing, the wealthy hedge funder allegedly lied to court officers and told them he’d been quarantining for two weeks in New York. But Kuczynski outed him to the officers, who confronted him. Stevenson admitted his falsehood and was escorted out of the building, said Steven Silpe, a lawyer for Kuczynski.

“That’s how we started the case off,” he said.

Kuczynski, 49, is a statuesque blonde who has two sons with Stevenson, 73, an investor and philanthropist who owns sprawling properties in Southampton and Sun Valley, Idaho. He has three former wives and six other children, and is worth just over $1 billion, according to friends of the couple.

He also owns lavish apartments at the iconic 740 Park Ave., a building famously favored by fellow billionaires, where he was the longtime head of the co-op board. He is a trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and on the board at Bard College, where he contributed millions for the expansion of the university’s library which bears his name.

Kuczynski, the author of the 2006 book “Beauty Junkies,” has often written about her own obsession with staying young and was featured in a magazine downhill skiing in a bikini a few years ago. She said she left New York City for Idaho to get away from the pressures of always being perfectly coiffed and impeccably thin.

“I reached this conclusion after I decided to forsake the high-octane jungle of New York City for the wilds of Idaho,” she wrote in Harper’s Bazaar in 2011. “Instead of entering the New York City pre-K private-nursery-school gauntlet, I bailed out of the whole system and moved my two little boys west for the season so they could ski every afternoon.”

The children might want to duck for cover as the divorce unfolds. Already Kuczynski’s lawyer slammed the couple’s pre-nup as “an unconscionable agreement that we’re looking to set aside.”

Silpe told The Post “the numbers that are in the agreement are a tiny fraction of what the parties’ standard of living is, and what we believe the husband’s assets are.”

Silpe said the agreement does not even cover child support for their two kids, aged 11 and 12.

But Stevenson has “always provided” for his previous three wives and six other children, friends say.

Kuczynski’s friend told The Post that Stevenson had been lately frustrated with Kuczynski’s efforts on her father’s behalf in Peru, where she has been trying to clear his name. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who was president of Peru between 2016 and 2018, resigned after facing two impeachment votes following a wide-ranging corruption scandal that began in Brazil. Kuczynski has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Kuczynski wants a smooth split, her lawyer said.

“She’s anxious for everybody to move on. She loves her children, she loves her stepchildren. She wants everyone to settle this equitably and fairly, and to allow her and her kids to move on, and for her step kids to move on.”

Lawyers for Stevenson refused comment Saturday.