NEWS'Most Tortured Relationship I've Ever Had': Christie Brinkley Eviscerates Ex Peter Cook in New Memoir After Learning of His Affair With an 18-Year-Old
Christie Brinkley spoke about her ex-husband Peter Cook in her new book, 'Uptown Girl.'
April 29 2025, Published 8:36 a.m. ET
Christie Brinkley didn't hold back when talking about her ex-husband Peter Cook, whom she was married to from 1996 to 2008, having an affair with an 18-year-old assistant.
Christie Brinkley spoke about learning of Peter Cook's affair in her new book.
“It was the most tortured relationship I've ever had,” writes Brinkley, 71, of Cook in her new memoir, Uptown Girl, which was released on Tuesday, April 29.
In the tome, the supermodel, who shares daughter Sailor with Cook, in addition to him adopting her son Jack from a previous relationship, detailed out how she found out about the tryst.
Christie Brinkley was 'stunned' after learning of the affair.
“Excuse me,” a man, who approached the businesswoman at a local high school in the Hamptons when she was there to give a graduation speech, said. "I need to tell you that arrogant husband of yours has been having an affair with my teenage daughter.”
“I was so stunned that I froze,” she writes in the excerpt, obtained by People.
She looked in to the audience where Peter was sitting with Jack and notes, “As soon as I saw him, Peter’s eyes were already trained on my face, as he began shaking his head, ‘No.’”
The model's book came out on April 29.
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“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.
Christie Brinkley recalls finding 'X-rated' photos at home.
Christie then found a "labyrinth" of files at home when she began to search for more information.
“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.”
The former flames ended up going through a messy divorce battle.
“I kept saying I don’t understand what good was a prenup?” she shared. “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.”
“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," she continued of now speaking out today.
Despite the hardship, Christie — who also shares daughter Alexa Ray Joel with ex Billy Joel — is exactly where she's meant to be.
"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."
