In her revealing new memoir Uptown Girl, supermodel Christie Brinkley pulls back the curtain on what she calls the “most tortured relationship” of her life—her eight-year marriage to architect Peter Cook, which ended in a scandalous 2006 divorce after she discovered his affair with an 18-year-old girl. The 71-year-old icon shares never-before-told details about the earth-shattering moment she learned the truth, and the six-year legal battle that followed.
Brinkley was delivering a graduation speech at a Hamptons high school when a stranger approached her with devastating news: “I need to tell you that arrogant husband of yours has been having an affair with my teenage daughter.” Frozen in shock, she locked eyes with Cook in the audience, who immediately began shaking his head ‘no.’ The discovery turned her life into what she describes as “the cliché middle-aged woman whose husband is having an affair with a much (much) younger woman.”
What followed was a night straight out of Charlie’s Angels, as two close girlfriends helped Brinkley scour the family computer. They uncovered a “labyrinth” of incriminating evidence—from porn accounts to explicit photos that came printing out “faster than trash outside a greasy takeaway.” The trio found themselves laughing hysterically at the absurdity, a moment of levity amid the heartbreak.
Despite having a prenuptial agreement, Brinkley endured a grueling six-year custody battle over their daughter Sailor and her son Jack (whom Cook had adopted). “I lived in fear of them taking my kids,” she admits, calling the experience “exhausting and scary.”
Now nearly two decades later, Brinkley reflects with gratitude—not for the pain, but for the three children her marriages gave her: “Whenever I wondered if I’d recover, I counted my blessings, which always started with Alexa Ray, Jack, and Sailor.” Her memoir transforms personal betrayal into a story of resilience, proving even supermodels face ordinary heartbreaks—and extraordinary comebacks.
