WIFE: I DID IT FOR THE TV MONEY
By JEANE MacINTOSH and ADAM BUCKMAN
February 27, 2008 -- The buxom blond wife of a city cop yesterday said she humiliated her husband in front of 8 million viewers of the reality show "Moment of Truth" - revealing she slept around and wanted to be wed to another guy - in a bid for fame and fortune.
But Lauren Cleri, 26, and her baby-faced hubby, rookie NYPD Officer Frank Cleri, 24, of Rockland County, said after appearing on the Fox show Monday night, they came away without any prize money, no immediate job offers for her - and a potentially irrevocably broken marriage.
PHOTOS: Lauren and Frank, after the show
"We're kind of up in the air right now - I want to [get back together], but I don't think he does," Lauren said in their tiny apartment in Piermont.
"It's not very easy to overcome," said Frank, a cop with the 48th Precinct in The Bronx.
Frank Cleri said he had been aware of his wife's cheating but not prepared for the emotional drain of their going public with it for the money.
Standing tensely next to his wife yet still wearing his wedding ring, he said, "Everything that was mentioned during this show, we had talked about before. We've had our issues. Unfortunately, now they're not just our problems. Everyone knows about it."
The pair catapulted into the national spotlight on the stomach-churning episode when Lauren revealed that she had cheated on her husband of two years and really wished she was married to an old boyfriend.
The show has contestants take a lie-detector test off-stage beforehand. They are asked some of the same questions later posed to them in front of the audience.
On Monday's show - taped two weeks ago - Lauren's ex-boyfriend made a surprise appearance and asked: "Do you believe I am the man you should be married to?"
As Frank Cleri grimaced on the sidelines, his wife said, "Well, wow, um. I'm going to be honest and say yes."
The lie-detector results said she was being truthful, and she was awarded $100,000.
After admitting that she cheated on Frank, too, and netting another $100,000, she was asked if she thought she is a good person.
She answered, "Yes," but the lie-detector test said she was lying. She lost all of the money.
Lauren said she had been called by a casting agent months ago about appearing on the show and, "I didn't think it was going to be this big a deal, because I thought so many people are doing it, we're not going to stand out."
The pair said they had planned to share any money she won.
But the show's executive producer, Howard Schultz, said Lauren Cleri told him later that "she doesn't want a relationship [with her ex or her husband].
"She wanted out of her marriage, and she wanted to . . . tell the truth," Schultz told The Post.
"Perhaps some of it was then, 'If I'm going to end my marriage, then if I can win a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand dollars. I can start a new life with some cash in my pocket.' "
Asked if she went on the show to get out of her marriage, Lauren yesterday said "definitely" not.
Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy and Carolyn Salazar
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