The scorned ex-mistress of a high-ranking New Jersey doctor nearly 30 years her senior, allegedly sent naked photos of the physician to his wife, threatened to send the explicit pics to his two sons and aired out grievances over their salacious affair on LinkedIn, according to a lawsuit.
Dr. Michel Kahaleh, 57, a prominent gastroenterologist at Hackensack Meridian Health, alleged in the suit that he has been the target of a relentless harassment campaign after he ended an extramarital affair with 29-year-old software consultant Eileen Ma in 2025, according to the Daily Mail.
Ma threatened to send naked recordings of the doctor to his family and “hand out flyers to everyone he knows,” according to the Manhattan lawsuit obtained by the outlet.
She followed through on one threat — sending an explicit photo of Kahaleh to his wife, Qian Li — and warned her lover she’d send the images to his two college-aged sons as well, the suit alleges.
Ma was arrested last month on charges of stalking, harassment, two counts of aggravated harassment, and unlawful disclosure of intimate images in connection with the accusations, which she has denied.
The paramour also bashed the respected doctor in a missive on LinkedIn, dragging the affair into the spotlight on the professional networking and job search platform. The post has since been deleted, but the career damage was already done, Kahaleh argued in the suit.
The alleged harassment and legal battle follow a relationship that blew up when Ma discovered Kahaleh was married around Valentine’s Day last year.
The physician filed for divorce from his wife that month, but court records show the proceedings were discontinued on June 19 — just four days after he reported the explicit photo leak to the police.
Ma told the Mail the relationship collapsed after she realized Kahaleh was still intimate with his wife, allegedly telling him: “You first cheated on your wife with me, and then you cheated on me with your wife?”
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and said she was misled about the status of Kahaleh’s marriage and that he had promised to divorce his wife.
Ma further claimed that while she was in China, her lover’s wife, Qian Li, messaged her to warn that she was being “played,” allegedly telling Ma that the couple was still intimate despite the affair.
The unwitting mistress denied sending the explicit photos to Qian Li, claiming she was at a tech conference in Paris at the time and suggesting someone may have accessed her phone while she was drunk.
Ma, however, admitted to contacting Kahaleh’s colleagues and making the LinkedIn post about the relationship, asserting she did so because she felt suppressed and wanted to advocate for herself.
While the doctor seeks monetary damages for emotional distress and professional impact, Ma alleges he showered her with gifts and furnished her Wall Street apartment during their year-long romance.
“I introduced him to my family,” the tech worker told the outlet, while swatting away any sugar baby suspicions.
“I thought he would be the one. It’s not because of money. It was because of the way he treated me. He was so consistent, always there.”
Kahaleh’s civil suit seeks a permanent injunction and unspecified damages for what he describes as extreme anxiety and a threat to his medical career.
He specifies in filings that the stress has caused him chest pains, depression and exhaustion.
He says in filings that Ma’s “treatment of me has dealt a severe blow to my personal sense of dignity and my career as she has now reached out to members of my medical practice.”
Kahaleh is not directly named in the civil suit but his attorneys confirmed to the Daily Mail that he is the party involved.
Ma is scheduled to return to court on the criminal charges on June 8, where she could face up to a year in jail if convicted.