It was a dashing, polo-loving “playboy” who came between Kerry Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo.
Bruce Colley, a Harvard-educated, BMW-driving, married New York businessman is the “other man” who caused the Cuomo-Kennedy marriage breakup, several sources told The Post.
“He and Kerry [were] definitely involved,” said a friend of both Andrew and Kerry’s.
Colley, 50, and his attractive wife, Ann, socialized with Andrew and Kerry.
When the illicit relationship blossomed, some friends said they felt caught in the middle.
“I’ve know all four of them a long time,” said one source who tried to counsel both sides in hope of a resolution. “All I want for all them is a happy outcome.”
Another source close to both the Colleys and the Cuomos said it was Kerry who pursued the relationship with Colley.
Colley is well-known on the Manhattan night-life and society scene.
“He’s good-looking and very charming,” said one friend of the blond, boyish businessman.
Another admirer described him as “a complete playboy.”
Sources did not know when the affair between Colley and Kerry, 43, began, but one friend said Cuomo, 45, found out about it when he “caught” the pair together.
Kerry confessed her affair to Andrew, sources said.
The Cuomos announced Monday they were ending their 13-year marriage.
The next day, reports from the Cuomo camp that Kerry had cheated on her husband made headlines. Cuomo’s friends spoke out after his lawyer said Andrew had been “betrayed” by Kerry in their marriage.
The Colleys have children and have vacationed with Andrew and Kerry Cuomo and their three young daughters, a source said.
“The Cuomo and Colley families were friends. They traveled in the same circles,” a source said.
“They’ve hit the slopes in Aspen together. They’ve vacationed together,” a source said.
Ann Colley, a North Carolina native who is active on the charity circuit, serves on the board of Riverkeeper, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s environmental group.
Colley’s father, Eugene, made a fortune with a chain of McDonald’s franchises. Property documents show the entrepreneurial Bruce Colley also owns fast-food restaurants and is in the family company, The Colley Group.
Among his other business ventures are the popular Manhattan nightspot Man Ray, which he opened in July 2001 with French record producer Theirry Klemeniuk. The celebrity investors include Johnny Depp, John Malkovich and Sean Penn.
Colley partied with a star-studded crowd that included Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler at Man Ray to celebrate the bar’s first anniversary last year.
Bruce and Ann Colley have an exclusive Upper East Side condo for which they paid nearly $3 million in 1999, as well as a home and offices in upstate Croton Falls.
Approached at his apartment Wednesday night, Colley slammed his front door on a reporter. Several hours later, he called The Post to “categorically” deny any romantic relationship with Kerry.
He told The Post that publishing such a story would harm him and his family, and that he intended to sue the newspaper if it published such a story.
Colley did not return repeated calls for additional comment yesterday.
Ann Colley is aware of her husband’s affair with Kerry, sources said. Ann could not be reached for comment.
Kerry’s lawyer, William Zabel, did not return repeated calls yesterday.
Her brother, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who has been working with Andrew’s father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, to broker a “cooling off” between Andrew and Kerry – said through a spokeswoman he had “no comment” on Colley.
A friend of both Kerry and Andrew called Colley “a wealthy pretty boy. Literally, a WASP polo player from the Ivy League. He seems like he comes from old money.
“He’s kind of like the opposite of Andrew.”
Though he likes fine cigars and the glare of the media spotlight, Andrew is more likely to be fishing than riding polo ponies, and he’s rarely seen on the New York club scene.
On the polo field, Colley has schmoozed with Princes Harry and Andrew. He was recently paired with Prince Harry against a team fielded by Prince Charles.
Closer to home, Colley has played for the upstate Mashomack polo team, is a fixture on the Hamptons polo circuit and regularly takes part in the annual Harvard-Yale polo match.
The dashing Colley also is popular in charity fund-raising circles.
He and his wife recently were named to Quest magazine’s Top 400 list of influential New Yorkers, which included Mayor Bloomberg, former Gov. Cuomo and wife Matilda, and Edgar Bronfman.
Colley’s politics don’t seem to fit those of Kerry, whose family is a bastion of the Democratic Party.
He and his family are big Republican donors, giving thousands of dollars to Gov. Pataki and other GOP candidates.
His company also has contributed to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee and Republican state lawmakers and congressmen.
But he apparently shares Kerry’s love of the environment, having attended a Hamptons benefit with his wife last year.
After Andrew discovered his wife’s extramarital affair, the couple went to a counselor, a source said, but ultimately could not work out their differences.
“They went to see a therapist, and Kerry promised to end it,” a source said. “But it continued.”
On this Fourth of July holiday weekend, Andrew is spending time fishing, and Kerry was headed to the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port.
Kerry, a lawyer, is a longtime human rights activist whose causes have included child labor, land rights, ethnic violence, the environment and women’s rights.
She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in 1988 and is active in Amnesty International and several other organizations. She has led dozens of human rights delegations to more than 40 countries.
Despite her imposing pedigree and serious, no-nonsense public persona, friends said her real personality shines through in private.
“She’s really girlish, almost naive,” said one admirer. “She’s in her 40s, but she still has this appealing innocence about her. She has a terrific sense of humor and a way of finding something good in even the worst situations.”
Though her travel for work often keeps her away from her three young daughters, twins Mariah and Cara, 9, and Michaela, 6, “she is a devoted mom,” another friend said.
“That’s the hardest part about all this, because both Kerry and Andrew are devoted to those girls and sick about the effect their split will have,” a source said.
“Kerry and Andrew are both good people . . . but they’ve come to a point where they have admitted they have different types of personalities.”