Hard fall for covergirl’s dad
From page.six

The family of supermodel Maggie Rizer is "devastated" over her stepfather’s loss of $80,000 in a five-day gambling binge and his subsequent admission into booze rehab.

John Breen, 46, is married to Maggie’s mom, Maureen, in their hometown of upstate Watertown. Rizer’s biological father died of AIDS when she was 14; her mother launched Maggie’s career when she sent Polaroids to the Ford agency. Now Rizer is trying to sort through the rubble of her family’s life back home.

"I lost one father to AIDS," Rizer tells PAGE SIX’s Jared Paul Stern. "I don’t want to lose another to gambling and alcoholism."

Breen, an insurance salesman who once ran for Jefferson County treasurer, lost the 80 grand, the family’s entire nest egg, playing Quick Draw at the Rusted Route Bar & Grill near Watertown in December. He typically bet between $10,000 and $30,000 a day, and once won $40,000. He wrote checks to the bar to cover the debts, which then bounced.

As a result, the bar might go under, reports the Watertown Daily Times. Meanwhile, Breen is at the Tully Hill Alcohol & Drug Treatment Center in Syracuse.

"We weren’t fully aware of the severity of John’s problem with alcohol until recently," Rizer says. "My entire family is devastated by it. We’re planning on getting more help for him . . . We’ve all lost a lot of money on this. But it’s not about money, it’s about getting him help . . . He’s been a great father to me. Now we just need to get my family back on their feet."

Rusted Route co-owner Gillian Maitland said she assumed Breen was independently wealthy and referred to him as a "gift horse." Now, she notes, "It’s just like a big old mess."

Rizer, 25, who graduated from Watertown High School in 1996 and built a house there, has been on the covers of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Allure, and starred in ads for the likes of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.