“Christie Brinkley and her husband are splitting up??!! No, it can’t be true.” Did you react the same way when you first heard the news? My astonishment is sincere (although, I can see where someone could interpret it as mock exasperation). I truly am saddened that the children of Brinkley and her fourth husband, architect Peter Cook will have to deal with the fact that their parents have decided to “go their separate ways” after 10 years of marriage.
“Yes, it’s true. The couple has separated,” the Cover Girl model’s rep said in a statement. She went on to say, “(Christie’s) immediate concern is for her children, and she’s hoping during this obviously difficult time that people will be kind enough to respect her privacy,”
Brinkley and Cook, who live in New York’s upscale South Hampton region, have a daughter, Sailor, 8. And shortly after the couple wed in 1996, Cook adopted Brinkley’s son (from husband No. 3 real estate developer Richard Taubman), Jack (now 11-years-old).
If the pair do not reconcile, this will be Brinkley’s fourth divorce. She was previously married to artist Jean-François Allaux (1973-81), singer Billy Joel (1985-94) and Taubman (1994-95). She and Joel have a 20-year-old daughter, Alexa.
When Brinkley married Cook (whom she met through NBC entertainment correspondent, Jill Rappaport), I was convinced that this one would be it. Whereas, I would have loved for her to remain with Joel, it seemed that she and Cook shared so much in common, namely their passion for environmental issues. The model-turned-activist, teamed up with Cook to successfully lobby for the permanent shutdown of two small nuclear reactors at Long Island’s Brookhaven National Lab — reactors that were found to be leaking radioactive material.
So, what went wrong? I’m sure in the days and weeks to come we will undoubtedly learn what it was that unraveled this union. Personally, reading about the couple’s split reminds me that life is a challenge even for people who seem to have it all. Brinkley, 52, is known around the world for her clean-cut, good looks. Her career as a supermodel has spanned more than three decades, and she has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers. Growing up my friends and I wished we could look “just like Christie Brinkley.” She had everything we didn’t… blond hair, blue eyes, etc. (Growing up in Hawaii, women are labeled more “exotic” than “All-American.”) My black-hair, brown-eyed, friends and I considered Christie Brinkley the picture of perfection. Sadly, it seems that her good looks haven’t always translated into happiness for her.