EXCLUSIVE: Ex-wife of Bill O’Reilly puts on a brave face as friends lash out at Fox News host for his ‘bitter attempt to wreck her happiness’ after he sues her for tricking him into financing 'an existing extra-marital relationship' 

Bill O'Reilly's ex-wife is gearing up to fight his $10million infidelity lawsuit after telling friends the alleged cuckold's claims are just a 'bitter attempt to wreck her happiness', Daily Mail Online can reveal. 

The 66-year-old Fox News host has accused Maureen McPhilmy of cheating on him while they were still married and making 'false representations' in their divorce settlement. 

It is widely believed the veteran anchor is referring to McPhilmy's relationship with Jeffrey Gross - the police detective she started dating around the time of their 2010 split and went on to marry. 

A source close to the couple has dismissed the accusations, however, telling Daily Mail Online: 'Bill has a lot of money. He also has a lot of power. He's determined to hurt them any way he can.' 

Bitter split: Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has accused his 50-year-old ex-wife Maureen McPhilmy of cheating on him while they were still married and making 'false representations' in their divorce settlement

Bill and his ex wife Maureen in happier days in 2008. Even after their divorce, Bill is still bitter. 'Bill has a lot of money. He also has a lot of power. He's determined to hurt them any way he can,' says a friend

McPhilmy, 50, put on a brave face Tuesday afternoon when she headed off on the school run to collect 13-year-old son, the youngest of two children from her 14-year marriage to O'Reilly. 

The blonde PR exec declined to discuss the suit, instead referring all questions to high-powered 'super lawyer' Casey Greenfield, whom she has retained to fend off his demands for $10million plus punitive damages.

'I have a lot of opinions but none that I can discuss with you,' McPhilmy said outside the $4million home she now shares with Gross, 50, in upscale Manhasset, on New York's Long Island. 

Nassau County Police detective Jeffrey Gross, here with his son, is now married to McPhilmy

McPhilmy is alleged to have started dating Gross, a widower with two teenage children, after her 2010 split from O'Reilly but before their divorce was finalized one year later. 

In documents filed by O'Reilly's lawyers, he claims she 'made false representations and material omissions of existing fact ... for the sole purpose of inducing Plaintiff to agree to a consensual divorce and to obtain money and real property to finance an existing extra-marital relationship.' 

Gross was not named in O'Reilly's suit but was identified as the likely third party in a report by Gawker. 

A veteran of the Nassau County Police Department, he lost his first wife, Kathleen McBride, to cervical cancer in 2006. She was aged just 41. 

Gross' Facebook page features a tribute to McBride, an actress and model who had a small part in the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, as well as playful photos of their two children, a son and a daughter.

Other images date back to his early policing days in the NYPD, with one taken prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks showing Gross posing up with the World Trade Center directly behind him. 

The caption reads: 'I can't forget what was lost the day of September 11, 2001. I lost some of my dear friends. People that had my back and would have died for me.' 

A photo of Jeff Gross, who was  an NYPD cop,  taken prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks showing him posing up with the World Trade Center directly behind him. The caption reads: 'I can't forget what was lost the day of September 11, 2001. I lost some of my dear friends. People that had my back and would have died for me'

Gross lost his first wife, Kathleen McBride, to cervical cancer in 2006. She was aged just 41. Gross' Facebook page features a tribute to McBride, an actress and model who had a small part in the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, as well as playful photos of their two children, Bailey and Riley

Daily Mail Online's source added: 'Bill O'Reilly can say whatever he says, but these allegations just don't sound like Jeff at all. 'He's a family man. A great cop - they voted him detective of the year once. 

'He's not the sort of person to go sneaking around behind peoples' backs. It just seems as if Bill is bitter and he can't let it go.' 

O'Reilly filed his lawsuit on April 1 asking that the case proceed in secret owing to his celebrity status, however it remains unsealed. 

The papers gave McPhilmy 20 days to respond or it warned that 'judgment will be entered by default for the sum of $10 million.' 

They were filed just one month after a panel of three appellate justices unanimously granted McPhilmy residential custody of the couple's children, ages 13 and 17.

She and O' Reilly had waged a four-year battle over the two youngsters, during which a therapist testified to say that his daughter had seen her father drag her mother down a staircase by the neck. 

The Fox News host subsequently denied the allegation, dismissing it as it '100 per cent false'.

He said in a statement: 'All allegations against me in these circumstances are 100 per cent false. I am going to respect the court-mandated confidentiality put in place to protect my children and will not comment any further.' 

O'Reilly is also alleged to have interfered with McPhilmy's relationship with Gross on a previous occasion, according to a 2011 report from Gawker. 

The papers gave McPhilmy 20 days to respond or it warned that 'judgment will be entered by default for the sum of $10 million'. They were filed just one month after a panel of three appellate justices unanimously granted McPhilmy residential custody of the couple's children, ages 13 and 17

The news site accused O'Reilly of leveraging his connections within Long Island’s law enforcement community to launch a nuisance internal affairs investigation against his love-rival for alleged misconduct. 

Gawker also reported in March 2013 that O'Reilly had launched an alleged smear campaign aimed at getting his ex-wife banned from the Catholic Church. 

He was said to have told the church that McPhilmy was receiving communion even though she had been divorced and remarried and that she had been telling their children that her second marriage was valid in the eyes of God. 

McPhilmy was reportedly reprimanded by her Long Island parish in writing as a result. 

Greenfield, regarded as one of New York's top-rated family law attorneys, did not return calls or an email requesting comment. Neither Fox News nor O'Reilly has commented on the suit.