Stephanie March reportedly ended marriage to chef Bobby Flay

December 6, 2012. Actress Stephanie March and her husband, chef Bobby Flay, attend the amfAR Inspiration Miami Beach Party at Soho Beach House in Miami Beach, Florida. (Reuters)

“Law & Order: SVU” actress Stephanie March ordered estranged husband Bobby Flay out of their home three weeks ago — after Flay had already left her alone for six weeks to film a TV show while she tended to her ill mother and battled her own personal health issues.

Food Network star and celebrity chef Flay filed divorce papers on Friday morning — the day after news broke of his separation from March. The New York Post reports that the couple has an ironclad prenuptial agreement in place.

Sources told the newspaper that it was Stephanie who initiated the initial split last month, right after Bobby returned from a six-week trip to LA.

“Three weeks ago, [March] asked him to leave” their New York apartment, the newspaper reports, and, “She was the one that precipitated the divorce.”

But on Friday, it was Flay who pulled the trigger first, racing to the courtroom to file papers before March could.

“It’s a really difficult time for Stephanie, both because of this, and she’s helping her mother, who has some health issues,” said March’s attorney. “And [she] is contending with her own health issues. Given all that, she would like to maintain her privacy.”

March has suffered from endometriosis and reportedly needed an emergency appendectomy from complications of the condition last year.

Rumors began swirling when Flay was spotted at dinner in December with fellow Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis in Miami days before she announced her own divorce. The two were in LA earlier this year filming “The Next Food Network Star.”

Flay’s attorney said, “They (Flay and De Laurentiis) spent time together, they filmed a show together, they were never (romantically) involved.”

Click here to read more in The New York Post.