Paula zahn affair with paul fribourg pic

Paula Zahn’s teed-off hubby didn’t know that steamy sex trysts between his wife and an old pal were par for the course for years.

Maybe he should have.

The illicit, years-long love affair between Zahn and business big Paul Fribourg was sizzling even as Fribourg hit the golf links with Zahn’s real-estate magnate husband, Richard Cohen, sources told The Post yesterday.

“Richard feels betrayed,” one pal said – and he only found out the truth from a tell-all manuscript Zahn wrote that documents her relationship with ContiGroup CEO Fribourg.

“It’s a lurid and shocking handwritten account of their relationship,” said the friend, who asked not to be identified.

Sources declined to discuss any details of Zahn’s “love book” or where exactly it was found, except to say, “She was indiscreet.”

The former CNN anchor’s affair with Fribourg became public knowledge in April, when it was announced that Zahn and Cohen were parting ways after 20 years.

“He’s told friends her affair just took his heart out,” the pal said.

Friends said Cohen had believed the relationship was a recent development, but Zahn’s book shows their relationship was much more “long-term” than Cohen had ever suspected.

“This had been going on at least a couple of years,” another friend said. “It clearly spells out the relationship. There’s no mystery – it has plenty of detail.”

The friend described the book as “as something like a high school girl would write. It’s child-like and devastating.

At the time the pair hooked up, Cohen and Fribourg were “playing golf together, tennis together. Their families spent time with each other.”

Fribourg, a father of four, is now getting divorced from his stunning wife, Josabeth.

Zahn, 51, and Cohen haven’t yet filed

Anchorgal Paula Zahn, in the throes of an ugly split with Boston real estate developer Richard Cohen, is telling friends that she was stuck in a sexless marriage that drove her into the arms of another man.

According to the New York Daily News, the fire went out on Paula’s 20-year marriage way before the Capital Properties poohbah discovered the ex-CNN anchor’s “shocking” and “lurid” sex diary a year ago.

“She and Richard weren’t having sex for some time,” a friend told the Big Apple tabloid.

However, Cohen’s camp tells a different story – that Zahn betrayed him when she “strayed” with his best bud, Paul Fribourg, the married ContiGroup CEO.

“I trusted Paul and I trusted Paula,” Cohen told a friend. “I had no inkling there was a long-term romance.”

Friends report that Richard, 59, felt like “he had been stabbed in the heart twice” when he discovered that his wife, 51, was cheating on him with a close friend.

“They played golf and tennis together, said an F.O.R. “Their families skiied together in Aspen.

Zahn’s love-struck musings in her hand-written diary were like those of a “16-year-old schoolgirl” the newspaper reported.

Neither Zahn nor Cohen has filed for divorce, however the former Channel 7 anchorgal has moved out of the posh Fifth Avenue co-op where she and Cohen lived with their three kids ages 10 to 17.

Last week, Zahn filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging that her hubby mismanaged $25 million she invested with him.

Zahn and Cohen, a Brookline homey turned mega residential and commercial real estate developer, met in the early 1980s when she worked at WHDH in Boston. They married in 1987.

BTW, Cohen’s company, founded in 1977, has the oh-so-swish Chatham Bars Inn in its portfolio of properties.

Originally Published:

Anchorwoman Paula Zahn told pals her sexless marriage to Richard Cohen drove her into the arms of another man.

A friend of the former CNN anchor said the fire went out of the 20-year marriage long before Cohen learned of the affair last August when he found his wife’s “lurid” sex diary.

“She and Richard weren’t having sex for some time,” the friend said.

Friends of the cuckolded Cohen tell a different story – that Zahn betrayed him when she “strayed” with his pal Paul Fribourg.

“I trusted Paul and I trusted Paula,” Cohen told a friend. “I had no inkling there was a long-term romance.”

The ugly new charges and countercharges came as the celebrity marriage continued to implode – and after the Daily News revealed how Cohen found a diary illustrated with photos in which Zahn laid bare her alleged affair with the married ContiGroup CEO.

“Richard felt like he’d been stabbed in the heart twice when he found out his wife had been cheating with one of his best friends,” one of the tycoon’s pals said yesterday. “They played golf and tennis together. Their families skied together in Aspen.”

Cohen’s ally called the diary “shocking” and “lurid.” Zahn’s side said the handwritten diary was more about love than lust.

“You know how it is when you’re first in love,” a friend said. “She was euphoric. She was like a 16-year-old schoolgirl.”

Neither Cohen, 59, a multimillionaire developer, nor Zahn, 51, has formally filed for divorce. Zahn has moved out of the Fifth Ave. co-op she and Cohen shared with their three children.

Last week, Zahn filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging Cohen mismanaged the $25million she invested with him. She also charged he was trying to gain “some sort of tactical advantage” amid the breakup by withholding information on the money he managed.

She’s the anti-Paula Zahn, a Bohemian beauty with gray flow ing hair, casual clothes and a sweet smile.

But Josabeth Fri bourg and plastique TV newscaster Zahn share one big thing in common – Fribourg’s husband, Paul.

In what has turned into a titillating, very public battle between Zahn and estranged hubby Richard Cohen, Josabeth Fribourg has been thrown into the spotlight that she seems to abhor, and Zahn would typically crave.

Josabeth – a classy, cultured native of Morocco – was gentle but firm as she spoke to a reporter outside her stately Upper East Side townhouse yesterday.

“I have four children. My family is very important to me. Leave me out of this,” Josa beth, dressed in a bil lowy smock and toting an artsy but pricey pouch, said politely with a slight accent be fore strolling off.

Her 53-year-old husband was nowhere in sight yesterday.

Likewise for Zahn, 51, and Cohen, 59, whose camps have been trading barbs recently over the former CNN anchor’s “love diary” that detailed the allegedly steamy sex romps Cohen shared with Paul Fribourg for years – even while he was playing best pal to Cohen.

It’s unclear when Josabeth Fribourg, 56, first learned of her husband’s alleged straying, but it clearly tore apart their 20-year marriage. The couple is now in the middle of a divorce.

Josabeth is the antithesis of the perfectly coifed, painfully put-together other woman in her life.

She preferred to stay behind the scenes as her husband ran his family’s multimillion-dollar food empire, remaining at home to raise their children.

But she’s no shrinking violet. She’s a world traveler with a passion for art.

She also clearly enjoys politics, albeit from the sidelines. Listing her occupation as “homemaker,” Josabeth has contributed money to everyone from Republican presidential contender Mitt Rom