'I found, in our house, video equipment...and I learned he was taping my sister.I moved out when I found th equipment.
- Jean Strahan, testifying against husband Michael in court yesterday.
July 13, 2006 -- The Michael Strahan divorce trial turned into an episode of America's Sleaziest Home Videos yesterday as it was revealed that the Giants star made a $30,000 payoff to his wife shortly after she caught him secretly videotaping her sister inside their home.
Jean Strahan, who said in court papers that the taping occurred while sister Denise was undressing, testified that her sack-machine hubby did his illicit filmmaking while they were living in East Stroudsburg, Pa., roughly two years before their 1999 marriage.
"I found, in our house, video equipment . . . and I learned he was taping my sister," she said under questioning by her lawyer Ellen Marshall in Newark Family Court. "I moved out when I found the equipment."
She added that a $30,000 deposit related to the taping was made by Strahan into a bank account that the North Dakota native kept in her home state.
Before she could expand on the subject of the payoff, Michael Strahan's lawyer, Robert Penza, objected, and Judge James Convery cut Jean off from talking about it further.
But the NFL star's wife had earlier claimed in court papers that the gap-toothed grid great placed the video camera in a clock radio inside a room where her younger sister was staying.
Police in East Stroudsburg said they had investigated the allegations, and searched the house, but never brought charges.
In the blockbuster divorce trial, Jean Strahan says a prenup entitles her to $14 million from the father of her twin girls, but the Giant says he only owes her $7 million.
The day started with Michael Strahan's spending habits being aired - including a forensic accountant admitting he paid $4,007 to a prominent plastic surgeon for work on him.
He also revealed secret high-end trips he took with various women.
One trip was a getaway to Phoenix, Ariz. - which he originally claimed to be for business - but which he later admitted was for "pleasure."
In an effort to show just how much "pleasure" he was getting out of the trip, Marshall tried to show a video of the defensive end holding hands with alleged mistress Nicole "Cupcake" D'Oliveira during the trip.
Penza vehemently objected.
As the lawyers fought, an exasperated Convery refused to let the tape be shown - and Michael Strahan smirked and laughed the whole time.
Strahan later admitted to taking trips with two other women to the Caribbean shortly after he split from his wife.
One trip was to St. Maarten with a woman named Theresa Higgonbothom, who once sold him antique chairs. The other was to an undisclosed island with a woman named Lindsey Dierling.
When Marshall asked if that trip was for business or pleasure, Strahan said "some business."
"What business did you do with her," Marshall asked.
"That's our business," he said with a smile.
Jean Strahan then took the stand and told the court the ugly history of their marriage - which started from the time they first met at a book signing in 1996.
She said that she only found out he was married after he talked her into co-signing with him to buy a new Mercedes - and an insurance company rep called to tell her he had a wife.
"I certainly did [confront him], it wasn't a good conversation" she said.
Much of the disagreement in the couple's divorce comes from a provision in their prenup that says Strahan must put aside 20 percent of his earnings each year for his wife in lieu of alimony.
He said he never did it because she didn't ask for it. But yesterday, she said that she asked for the money several times, usually around the time the football season started.
While embarrassingly bringing up the fact he once got a sperm test when she couldn't get pregnant, Jean also said her husband hounded her throughout their marriage in an effort to change the prenup.
She also claimed that once, in 2001, he had a lawyer write her a letter that said he wanted to change the 20 percent set aside enshrined in the prenup to "zero percent."
"I told [Michael] I wasn't redoing anything - I said we were trying to get pregnant," she testified.
As she recalled this, she started crying, prompting Strahan to laugh and turn to the media seating section with a smile.
