She has described their marriage as ‘one of the most tormented experiences of my life’ – an experience that came to a screeching stop when she discovered he was cheating on her with a teenager.
So, it’s hardly surprising that feuding exes Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook were careful to keep their distance when both showed up at a fundraising gala in East Hampton on Saturday night.
Photos show the former couple at Author’s Night – a lavish society bash that raises cash for East Hampton Library – doing their best to avoid each other.
Making the encounter all the more awkward was 66-year-old Cook’s date for the night: his 26-year-old blonde wife Alba Jancou.
Brinkley, meanwhile, was one of the featured authors: signing copies of her memoir Uptown Girl in which she excoriates Cook for his cheating and the six-year divorce battle it precipitated.
She wrote: ‘Years later, in 2012, after a tumultuous six-year divorce and custody battle with Peter, he called me a liar on national television.
Supermodel Christie Brinkley had an awkward run-in with ex-husband Peter Cook at Author’s Night, a lavish East Hampton Library fundraiser, while signing her new book that details his affair with an 18-year-old
Accompanying Cook was his 26-year-old wife, Alba Jancou, making the encounter even more awkward as she is a year younger than the daughter he shares with Brinkley
Brinkley and Cook’s daughter Sailor has followed her mother into the modeling world.
‘I never defended myself, and while I’m not interested in talking about him now, I do want to share a little story.’
That story began with her giving a commencement address at a graduation ceremony at Southampton High School.
According to Brinkley, after the address a man not involved in the event tapped her on the shoulder and told her that Cook, an architect, was sleeping with his 18-year-old daughter.
Brinkley continued: ‘I knew from Peter’s face that he was guilty, and in that moment, I thought I was going to pass out onstage, in front of hundreds of people.
‘When I stood back up, I asked the man for his card, but he told me he didn’t have one and that he was a police officer in town, so all I had to do was to go into the station if I wanted the full story.’
According to the glamorous blonde, she went on to get all the details and kicked Cook out – teeing up a painful divorce and a lengthy custody battle over their model daughter Sailor, now 27.
Brinkley and Cook split after a Hamptons cop told the supermodel that her husband had been sleeping with his 18-year-old daughter
Brinkley has been married four times. Husband number one was French artist Jean-François Allaux (left) while her third was real estate entrepreneur Richard Taubman
The supermodel’s most famous marriage was to superstar Billy Joel who were married from 1985 to 1994 and share one daughter, Alexa Ray
Brinkley has been married four times – before fourth husband Cook, she was wed to French artist Jean-François Allaux, real estate entrepreneur Richard Taubman and most famously of all, singer Billy Joel.
Brinkley and Joel were married from 1985 to 1994 and share a daughter, Alexa Ray, who was born in 1985.
Currently single, she has been publicly unenthusiastic about the prospect of a fifth husband and suggested making marriages a five-year deal during an interview with Sex and the City Star Kristin Davis on her podcast earlier this week.
The 71-year-old told the Are You A Charlotte? host: You could get married, like, ‘We’ll see if you want to renew it in five years,
‘Every five years, go, ‘Do you want to renew?’ That way, if you’re getting bored or whatever, you can get out of it without all the lawyers and all that stuff.’
Cook, meanwhile, has had no such qualms and married his much younger wife in an intimate ceremony in Capri in 2023.
The blushing bride, who was just 20 when she got engaged to Cook, wore a stunning appliqued dress by Israeli designer Lee Grebenau for the al-fresco nuptials teamed with a pair of Aquazzura shoes.
Cook married his much younger wife in an intimate Capri ceremony in 2023. The 20-year-old bride wore a stunning appliquéd dress by Israeli designer Lee Grebenau, paired with Aquazzura shoes, for the al-fresco nuptials
Jancou told People Magazine the weddings was ‘romantic’ and that they knew they wanted to get married in Capri because they had vacationed there multiple times
Speaking to People magazine after the event, Jancou – who at 26 is a year younger than her stepdaughter Sailor – described the wedding as ‘romantic’ and ‘visually stunning’.
She said: ‘I mean, who doesn’t want to get married in Capri!? We both absolutely love Italy; it is our favorite country.
‘We have traveled all over Italy together and the one place that really stood out to us was Capri. We loved everything from the views, the food and the culture. It is so romantic and visually stunning.’
Architect Cook added: ‘We had vacationed there in 2021, and spent the day of our third anniversary taking a boat trip where we kissed under the Faraglioni.
‘About a year after our trip, Alba found a perfect terrace overlooking the Faraglioni, and we knew that was where we wanted to get married.’
