Interview with Stacey's ex-husband from Inside Edition

She's the alluring star of TV Land's hit reality show, The Cougar. Stacey Anderson, a 40-year-old stunner, is hunting for love in the arms of hunky young men half her age.

But the reality show is not all fun and games. INSIDE EDITION went to the home of "The Cougar's" ex-husband, who says she left him and their three kids. He also says the Anderson is not the catch she's made out to be.

"When she first decided to leave, it was pretty devastating," says Steve Anderson, Stacey's ex-husband. "I tried everything I could to get her to stay."

Anderson is speaking exclusively to INSIDE EDITION about what it was like being married to "The Cougar."

Stacey was a pretty brunette when the couple wed in 1992. They had three children together.

"There were some good times in there," Anderson admits.

But like the woman portrayed on TV, Anderson says Stacey preferred night clubs and young men in real life. He says they drifted apart and their 10-year marriage ended in divorce.

According to allegations contained in court papers Anderson filed in 2005, Stacey suffered from

alcoholism and substance abuse.

"Did she cheat?" asks INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander.
Anderson says, "No comment."

Anderson says he got full custody of the couple's three children and raised them in Utah. He also helped raise Stacey's 23-year-old daughter from a previous marriage...the daughter that is older than some of the men Stacey is dating on the show.

But Anderson says he was positively stunned after seeing his ex-wife boast of being a millionaire real estate agent.

"She was portraying herself as being this very busy mom and making millions of dollars, I was shocked...That's the reason I decided to talk about this. She still refuses to pay the back two years of child support she owes, plus medical bills. It's a pretty big tab," Anderson tells INSIDE EDITION.

He says by his calculation, she owes him $30,000. But he says most painful of all is watching her portrayed as a doting mom.

"Right now, how often would you say she sees her kids?" asks Alexander.
"There are definitely years that it's 3, maybe 4 days out of the year," Alexander says.

The musician and independent filmmaker is now happily re-married to a striking blonde who looks a lot like Stacey! Steve Anderson hopes his ex finds love too, but he has this message for whoever wins The Cougar: "They're going to inherit someone with four kids who owes a ton of back child support...and they'll wake up and say 'Whoa, what did I win?' "

Mr. Anderson says he's seen the fancy house Stacey lives in on the show, but as far as he knows, before The Cougar began she lived in a one-bedroom apartment.