It seems like a page out of a romance novel. A wealthy model falls in love with a doorman in her building. They get married and live happily ever after – sort of.
Christina Ambers is suing her upscale Manhattan apartment building, alleging the co-op is trying to force her out because she married its former doorman.
Building lawyer Joe Colbert says the claims have "no merit.''
Ambers, a hand-and-foot model hailed as the "Heidi Klum" of her trade by New York Magazine, filed a $10 million lawsuit in Manhattan state Supreme Court against residents and management of the East 74th Street building known as the Avon House.
The lawsuit claims her husband, Angel Rotger, lost his job and building employees made her hail her own taxis and retrieve her packages after the couple became romantically involved. It also charges that racial discrimination is at play.
The building's actions "stem in large part from the fact that this wealthy Upper East Side cooperative objects to a Hispanic former porter residing side by side with the other," according to the lawsuit.
The couple married in July, and their lawyer, Joshua Price, told The New York Post that it may make some people "uncomfortable" to have the former porter as a neighbor.
Speaking of discomfort, the lawsuit also claims that the building superintendent's wife gave Rotger a "contusion of the testicle" after hitting him with a bag for no reason.
Ambers says that her building needs to catch up with the times.
"We are all equal," she told the Post. "How dare they try to force us out over my marriage and love for my husband?"
The 36-year-old model has worked for Revlon, Coach and Neutrogena, and moved into the swanky building six years ago. Once management found out about her fling with Rotger, they allegedly told the porter to stay away from her. But the couple continued to date in secret and were eventually discovered, which resulted in Rotger getting fired, the lawsuit alleges, according to the Post.
"The board will vigorously defend the allegations made by Ms. Ambers," Colbert told the Daily News.
