Swimsuit model and Vogue cover girl Hilary Rhoda shocked people when she married the most hated man in ice hockey in 2015.
The only surprise was that she lasted almost seven years with the impulsive Sean Avery, with whom she has a young son, before filing for divorce on Wednesday citing “irreconcilable differences”.
Avery, 42, who played in the NHL for 13 seasons, including two stints with the New York Rangers, married Rhoda, 35, in 2015. The couple separated on July 17, according to court documents filed in Los Angeles earlier this week.
And Twitter has opinions about it.
“What the hell did she see in him?! ” tweeted an Avery hater. “It seems like he gets fired for every single thing he tries and fights EVERYONE. At some point, when you finally ask, ‘maybe it’s ME?’”
“Who would have thought that living with Sean Avery would be difficult?” Roadmagnet wondered.
It’s the latest slap in the face for Avery, who has left a string of angry people, arrests and lawsuits in his wake over the years. In the NHL, he was well known for his game fights.
Off the ice, he’s been accused of everything from banging his scooter into a car who was blocking a bike lane in 2019 (he was found guilty of criminal mischief after a trial in June) to mocking the lisp of former LA Kings captain Dustin Brown and his wifewhom Avery thought was apparently not pretty enough for an NHL star.
And then there was the moment in 2008, when he publicly mocked fellow NHL star Dion Phaneuf for dating Avery’s ex, actress Elisha Cuthbert, calling her “Seconds Wrong Echos.”
Avery was arrested days before his wedding to Rhoda for allegedly throwing rocks at cars, stormed off the set of an off-Broadway show in 2014 when he collapsed because an assistant offered him pizza, and threw a tantrum on twitter against a homeless advocate in 2016.
Her mother-in-law, Marianne Rhoda, was also not a fan of Avery. She tried to get her daughter to sign a prenuptial agreement before marrying him. Instead, Hilary fired Marianne, who had been her manager for a long time, and did not invite her to the wedding.
Marianne then had Avery hit with a restraining order in 2017 for stalking her while they lived nearby in the Hamptons.
Mother and daughter had been involved in lawsuits and counter litigation since 2014 over Marianne’s alleged mismanagement of Hilary’s career and finances.
“Hilary and her mother were very close before this boy came along,” says a friend of Marianne’s. he told Page Six in 2016.
There were few outward signs that Rhoda and Avery were headed for a breakup.
In April, Avery, who shares 2-year-old son Nash with Rhoda, gushed with his wife for his birthday.
“Happy birthday to the most beautiful woman in the world who continues to evolve as a creative and more importantly an amazing mother.” he wrote on your Instagram account.
Avery has been something of an amateur since he left hockey. He tried his hand at the restaurant business, consulted with fashion brands, and worked for a time flipping houses in the Hamptons. He even interned at Men’s Vogue in the summer of 2008 when, in a rare moment of emotional maturity, calmed will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, that he was about to leave a photo shoot because he didn’t like the clothes he was offered.
Although Avery retired from the NHL in 2012, attempted to make a hockey comeback earlier this year after signing with the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears in February. he was released two days after signing with the team.
Not everyone dislikes Avery. One of the many attorneys who represented him in the past told The Post that he had a “strong personality” that made him a good hockey player.
“He’s a fighter, a real street fighter and I think that’s embedded in his psyche,” the attorney said. “But I also found him generous and also very ambitious about his post-hockey career.”
Rhoda has defended Avery in the past. She told ML Hamptons magazine that, “He gets a bad rap sometimes because he’s not afraid to speak his mind… Some people misunderstand him and think he’s a jerk, but if you know him or are friends with him , It is one”. one of the kindest people and one of the most gracious people. He would do anything for anyone, and he is very generous.”
Their romance began in New York storybook style. The couple met in the summer of 2009 at Warren 77, a Manhattan bar. Avery described the meeting to hamptons magazine like love at first sight.
“I can say that I am part of the old story: a girl walks into a bar and a boy says to his friend: ‘That is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I am going to marry her’”.
They are married four years later at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. A minister of the Universal Brotherhood Movement officiated.
“He is all smoke and mirrors. He doesn’t have a lot of friends in any line of work,” former partner told the post in 2016.
Neither Avery nor Rhoda returned calls Wednesday.