“There were many times I wondered if I’d ever recover,” the supermodel, 71, writes in her new memoir ‘Uptown Girl’ of the scandalous split from her fourth husband
“It was the most tortured relationship I’ve ever had,” writes Christie Brinkley of her fourth marriage to architect Peter Cook.
For years, the 71-year-old supermodel has said very little about what happened after she learned Cook was having an affair in 2006, leading to their scandalous split after eight years of marriage. The divorce and drawn-out custody battle over their daughter, Sailor, and Jack (her son whom he’d adopted) created endless headlines. But in her powerful new memoir, Uptown Girl, out today, Brinkley reveals much more, including how she first learned of his affair.
It was 2006 and she was giving a graduation speech at a local high school in the Hamptons, when Brinkley was approached by a man she’d never seen before.
“Excuse me,” he said softly. “I need to tell you that arrogant husband of yours has been having an affair with my teenage daughter.”
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“I was so stunned that I froze,” she writes. She looked into the audience where Cook was sitting with Jack “As soon as I saw him,” she continues, “Peter’s eyes were already trained on my face, as he began shaking his head, ‘No.’”
“When your whole world falls apart and you realize in a heartbeat you’ve suddenly become the cliche middle-aged woman whose husband is having an affair with a much (much) younger woman, what do you do?” she writes.
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She began by finding strength in her female friends, two of whom later urged Brinkley to search their family computer for more information. One night, they came over to help — a scene, which she describes as something out of Charlie’s Angels.
There, she found a “labyrinth” of files. “A panoply of incriminating photos and porn accounts populated the screen like fireworks, and before I knew it, my printer was shooting [beaver shots] out into the room,” she writes. “It was so insane that it was almost funny and soon enough, the three of us were doubled over in laughter, as printouts of girls in X-rated poses began piling up on the floor faster than trash outside a greasy takeaway.”
Brinkley and Cook’s ensuing split ended up in a six-year court battle. “I kept saying I don’t understand what good was a prenup?” she says, looking back. “It was exhausting and scary because I always lived in fear of them taking my kids because that was the constant threat and a terrifying thing to live with. I got a prenup so I didn’t have to go through all this but still did. It was mind boggling and it was hard to write about.”
For years, she says, “I didn’t say anything to anybody. But one day when I came out of the courtroom I said, ‘Google a narcissist.’ The letters started pouring in and I had so many women saying ‘Thank you. I realize other women are going through it. I’m not alone.’”
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And today, she looks back with gratitude for what the experience brought her. Namely, her three children. “There were many times when I wondered if I would ever recover,” she writes in her book. “Whenever I felt this, I stopped, looked inward and counted my blessings, which was a long list that always started with Alexa Ray, Jack, and Sailor.”
Now grown, Alexa Ray, 39, Jack, 29, and Sailor, 26, have supported her newfound candor. Reflects Brinkley, “They said it’s your story to tell, so tell it.“
Uptown Girl is on sale now, wherever books are sold.
