Rage-fueled history of Sean Avery as Hilary Rhoda divorces him

Swimsuit model and Vogue cover girl Hilary Rhoda shocked people when she married the most hated man in ice hockey in 2015.

The only surprise was that she lasted nearly seven years with hot-headed Sean Avery, with whom she has a young son, before filing for divorce Wednesday citing “irreconcilable differences.”

Avery, 42, who played in the NHL for 13 seasons — including two stints with the New York Rangers — married Rhoda, 35, in 2015. The pair separated on July 17, according to court documents filed in Los Angeles earlier this week.

And Twitter has opinions about it.

“What in the HECK did she see in him?! ” tweeted one Avery hater. “Sounds like he gets fired from every single thing he tries & fights w/EVERYONE. At some point when do u finally ask,’ maybe it’s ME?’”

“Who would have thought that living with Sean Avery might be difficult?” Roadmagnet wondered.

It’s the latest slapshot in the face for Avery, who’s left a string of angry people, arrests and lawsuits in his wake over the years. In the NHL, he was well known for his game brawls.

Off the ice, he’s been accused of everything from bashing his scooter into a car that was blocking a bike lane in 2019 (he was found guilty of criminal mischief after a trial in June) to making fun of former LA Kings captain Dustin Brown’s lisp and his wife, whom Avery thought apparently wasn’t pretty enough for an NHL star.

And then there was the time in 2008 he, when he publicly derided fellow NHL star Dion Phaneuf for dating Avery’s ex, actress Elisha Cuthbert, calling her “sloppy seconds.”

Avery was arrested days before his wedding to Rhoda for allegedly throwing rocks at cars, stormed off the set of an off-Broadway show in 2014 when he had a meltdown over an assistant offering him pizza, and threw a Twitter tantrum against a homeless advocate in 2016.

His mother-in-law, Marianne Rhoda, was no Avery fan either. She tried to get her daughter to sign a prenup prior to marrying him. Instead, Hilary fired Marianne, who had been her longtime manager, and didn’t invite her to the wedding.

Marianne later got Avery hit with a restraining order in 2017 for harassing her while they all lived near each other in the Hamptons.

Mother and daughter had been entangled in lawsuits and counter-litigation since 2014 over Marianne’s alleged mismanagement of Hilary’s career and finances.

“Hilary and her mother were so close before this guy came along,” a friend of Marianne’s told Page Six in 2016.

There were few outward signs that Rhoda and Avery were headed for a split.

In April, Avery — who shares 2-year-old son Nash with Rhoda — gushed over his wife for her birthday.

“Happy Birthday to the most beautiful woman in the world who continues to evolve as a creative and, more importantly, an incredible mother,” he wrote on his Instagram account.

Avery has been somewhat of a dilettante since he left hockey. He’s tried his hand at the restaurant business, consulted with fashion labels and worked for a time flipping houses in the Hamptons. He even interned at Men’s Vogue in the summer of 2008 when, in a rare moment of emotional maturity, he calmed will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who was about to walk out of a photo shoot because he didn’t like the clothes he was being offered.

Though Avery retired from the NHL in 2012, he attempted to make a hockey comeback earlier this year after signing with the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears in February. He was released two days after signing with the team.

Not everyone dislikes Avery. One of the many lawyers who represented him in the past told The Post said he had a “strong personality” that made him a good hockey player.

“He’s a fighter, a real street fighter and I think that’s embedded in his psyche,” the lawyer said. “But I also found him to be generous and also very ambitious about his post-hockey career.”

Rhoda has defended Avery in the past. She told ML Hamptons magazine that, “He gets a bad rep sometimes because he isn’t afraid to speak his mind … Some people misunderstand him and think he’s a jerk, but if you know him or you’re friends with him, he’s one of the kindest people and one of the gentlest people. He’d do anything for anybody, and he’s very generous.”

Their romance began in storybook NYC fashion. The couple met in the summer of 2009 at Warren 77, a Manhattan bar. Avery described the meeting to Hamptons magazine as love at first sight.

“I can say I’m part of the age-old story: girl walks into a bar and guy says to his buddy, ‘That’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I’m going to marry her.’”

They married four years later at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. A minister from the Universal Brotherhood Movement officiated.

“He is all smoke and mirrors. He doesn’t have a lot of friends in any line of work,” a former teammate told The Post in 2016.

Neither Avery nor Rhoda returned calls Wednesday.