Latest news with #Brinkley
Toronto Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
Christie Brinkley reveals exact moment she learned her husband was cheating with teen girl
Christie Brinkley attends the Women's Health Lab hosted by Hearst Magazines at The New York Historical on May 19, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Roy Rochlin / Getty Images Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Christie Brinkley is recounting the moment she found out her husband of eight years was cheating on her. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The 71-year-old supermodel, who appears on the cover of Social Life Magazine in honour of her memoir, Uptown Girl , described to the outlet, per USA Today , what it was like getting the news — while in public, right before she was set to give a speech. 'There were parts where I thought, 'Please don't cry,'' Brinkley recalled, when it came to reading her story out loud for the audiobook. 'I tried to keep [my voice] level, but [the publisher] let me be. Let my voice crack. Let it show.' One emotional moment was discovering how her fourth husband, architect Peter Cook, was having an affair. It was 2006 and she was set to give a graduation speech at a local high school in the Hamptons, when Brinkley was approached by a man she'd never seen before. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Excuse me,' he said softly. '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 wrote. 'I asked him to repeat it.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Brinkley wrote that she looked into the audience where Cook was sitting with her son, Jack. 'Jack's face was frozen in panic. He felt it instantly. He knew something was very wrong,' she recalled. According to Brinkley, she looked out into the crowd and saw 'mouths agape,' reminding her of The Scream oil painting. 'They all knew,' she wrote, according to the outlet. 'Maybe some judged. Maybe some didn't. But in that suspended moment, she felt faint, exposed… like the floor might drop beneath her.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The father of the 18-year-old was a police officer, Brinkley mentioned in the book. 'I know from Peter's face that he was guilty,' she added. '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?' Brinkley revealed she found solace and support from her friends, two of whom went to her house where the three searched the family computer and found a 'creepy labyrinth of files and photos I never knew existed.' RECOMMENDED VIDEO The Vacation actress described it as something out of Charlie's Angels . 'I was good at guessing passwords, and soon enough, a panoply of frightening email exchanges, incriminating photos, and porn accounts populated the screen like fireworks,' Brinkley wrote. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. '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.' Read More Brinkley and Cook's split was messy and the two battled in court for six years. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model wrote: 'It was the most tortured relationship I've ever had.' Celebrity Other Sports Toronto & GTA World Toronto Blue Jays
New York Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Christie Brinkley details devastating moment that ‘nearly broke' her: ‘Something was very wrong'
When Christie Brinkley found out that her husband was having an affair, it 'nearly broke her.' The veteran Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model is on the cover of Social Life Magazine in celebration of her memoir, 'Uptown Girl,' which came out earlier this year. The 71-year-old spoke to the outlet about what it was like sharing her story, both the highs and lows. 'There were parts where I thought, 'Please don't cry,'' said Brinkley when it came to reading her story out loud for the audiobook. 'I tried to keep [my voice] level, but [the publisher] let me be. Let my voice crack. Let it show.' One of the moments Brinkley described in the book was discovering how her fourth husband, architect Peter Cook, was unfaithful after eight years of marriage. According to the outlet, Brinkley was at a graduation ceremony in 2006 to give a commencement speech. She described how a man approached her with a revelation that had the 'weight of a wrecking ball, delivered in barely a whisper.' 'I asked him to repeat it,' she recalled before turning to look at Cook. 'And then I looked at Jack,' she said about her son. 'Jack's face was frozen in panic. He felt it instantly. He knew something was very wrong.' 4 Christie Brinkley at the Sports Illustrated Swim Issue Launch Party held at the Hard Rock Hotel on May 16, 2024 in New York, New York. WWD via Getty Images According to Brinkley, she looked out into the crowd. She saw 'mouths agape,' reminding her of 'The Scream' oil painting. 'They all knew,' the outlet shared. 'Maybe some judged. Maybe some didn't. But in that suspended moment, she felt faint, exposed… like the floor might drop beneath her.' Brinkley said she asked the man if he had a card. 4 Alexa Ray Joel and Brinkley attend the SASF Sweet 16th Unconditional Love Gala on July 19, 2025 in Bridgehampton, New York. Getty Images 'No,' he said. 'But I'm a cop at the Southampton station.' After the ceremony, Jack rushed over to his mother and asked what was wrong. She told him, 'Mommy needs to go to the police station.' There, she would get more information about how her marriage was unraveling. Brinkley told the outlet that she didn't know what readers would expect from her book. 'I had thought this book might sit on shelves,' she admitted. 'I worried it would embarrass my kids. But people bought it. They loved it. I cried.' In her book, Brinkley describes how the police officer who made the revelation was the father of the 18-year-old Cook was involved with. 4 Brinkley was married to her fourth husband, Peter Cook, from 1996 to 2008. Djamilla Rosa Cochran 'I know from Peter's face that he was guilty,' Brinkley wrote. 'When your whole world falls apart, and you realize in a heartbeat you've suddenly become the cliché middle-aged woman whose husband is having an affair with a much (much) younger woman, what do you do?' That night, Cook was out of the house. And friends urged Brinkley to search the family computer. They even came over to help, an operation Brinkley said looked like something out of 'Charlie's Angels.' There, she found a 'creepy labyrinth of files and photos I never knew existed.' 'I was good at guessing passwords, and soon enough, a panoply of frightening email exchanges, incriminating photos, and porn accounts populated the screen like fireworks,' Brinkley wrote. '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.' 4 The veteran Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model is on the cover of Social Life Magazine in celebration of her memoir, 'Uptown Girl,' which came out earlier this year. Getty Images Brinkley and Cook's split resulted in a six-year court battle. Social Life Magazine reported that the divorce trial was 'tabloid catnip and a full-blown media spectacle.' It was also 'a mother fighting to protect her cubs.' Today, Brinkley told the outlet she finds solace tending to her garden, just like another famous blonde. 'I admire Pamela [Anderson],' Brinkley told Social Life about the 'Baywatch' icon. 'I think we were both misread. Different myths were built around each of us, and now we've found the freedom to say what was always ours. We're not salon blondes. We're hands-in-the-dirt women. We bloom in the garden.' Brinkley previously told Fox News Digital she dares to love again. 'I find that love is the strongest thing in the whole world, and we are surrounded by love,' she said. 'There are so many kinds of love and love for our friends, love for our families, love for nature and love for people that protect nature. I love love – I feel like my life is so full of love.' 'I think if there's a romantic love that comes along, it would be wonderful,' she shared. 'But I also feel very content and happy with the life that I have right now. I consider my life to be very full of love.'
USA Today
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Christie Brinkley on Peter Cook affair, making of emotional memoir: 'Please don't cry'
For Christie Brinkley, owning your truth is no bed of roses. The model and former wife of Billy Joel, who got candid on her life and career in the new memoir "Uptown Girl," reflected on the making of the emotional book in a July 18 cover story for Social Life Magazine. The book, which chronicles Brinkley's early modeling days and her tumultuous romances with Joel and ex-husband Peter Cook, is accompanied by an audiobook narrated by the Sports Illustrated alum herself. "There were parts where I thought, 'Please, don't cry,'" Brinkley, 71, told the magazine. "I tried to keep (my voice) level, but (the publisher) let me be. Let my voice crack. Let it show." Christie Brinkley memoir revelations: Model talks Billy Joel marriage, Peter Cook affair Brinkley was married to Cook, an architect, from 1996 to 2008. The pair's relationship unraveled after Brinkley discovered Cook had cheated on her with an 18-year-old. The former couple shares a daughter, 27-year-old Sailor Lee Brinkley Cook. Christie Brinkley recalls Peter Cook affair, son's reaction In "Uptown Girl," Brinkley writes that she learned about Cook's affair while giving a commencement speech at Southampton High School in 2006. After her speech, a man reportedly approached her and said: "That arrogant husband of yours has been having an affair with my teenage daughter, and he won't knock it off." Brinkley's son Jack, whom she shares with ex-husband and real estate developer Richard Taubman, was in attendance at the graduation ceremony and allegedly observed the tense interaction. "Jack's face was frozen in panic. He felt it instantly," Brinkley told Social Life Magazine. "He knew something was very wrong." Brinkley told her son, then 11, that she needed to go to the police station, where the man who informed her of the affair worked, to assist "a girl who needed her help." It took four years before Brinkley and Cook concluded their media-frenzied court battle over custody of their kids. 10 bingeable memoirs to check out: Celebrities tell all about aging, marriage and Beyoncé Despite her marital woes, Brinkley remains optimistic about love, telling Fox News in an April interview that "love is the strongest thing in the whole world." "I just feel like my life is so full of love," Brinkley told the outlet. "If there's a romantic love that comes along as well, it would be wonderful. But I also feel very content and happy with the life that I have right now, and I consider my life to be very full of love." Contributing: Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Told she'd be ‘done by 30', at 71, Christie Brinkley is still going strong
This story is part of the July 20 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. How different might the histories of fashion photography and pop music – never mind Billy Joel's love life – have been if Bianca the dog had not been unwell in the spring of 1974? Bianca belonged to a 20-year-old American woman who had moved to Paris to get over a cheating boyfriend. When the puppy fell ill, the woman left her apartment to phone the vet. She was looking down at Bianca, who was curled up in her bag, and accidentally walked into a tall man wearing a faded green US Army jacket. He had a camera hanging around his neck. He told her he was a photographer who had a client looking for a California girl for a modelling job. 'If you're not a model, you should be,' the man said. 'You could earn a lot of money.' He asked the woman her name. She told him it was Christie Brinkley. Fast-forward to today and Brinkley is beaming in from the kitchen in her Hamptons home. In the days leading up to the interview, it was made clear that she would not be turning on her camera during our Zoom call. This made me annoyed with her before we had even started talking, but apparently there had been some misunderstanding because her camera is very much on. In conversation, Brinkley is, and I cannot stress this enough, a total hoot: funny, unaffected, open and a joy to spend 90 minutes with. We are talking about the publication of her memoir. Somewhat inevitably, it is titled Uptown Girl because if there is anything Christie Brinkley is known for, it is the song her former husband Billy Joel wrote about her and the video in which she makes a small but unforgettable appearance. 'I love the song,' she says. 'I think it's so fun that I get to have a theme song.' It's great, but there is so much more to Brinkley than being a muse. She became the world's first supermodel before the word even existed, appearing on more than 500 magazine covers, and is the only person to appear on three consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue covers. She had a record 25-year contract with the cosmetics brand CoverGirl – one of the longest modelling contracts in history. She is also a hugely successful businesswoman. As well as her fashion line, TWRHLL, she has an organic wine label called Bellissima. 'I have always wanted to try to do as many things as possible,' she says, 'have all these different experiences and fill up my life with adventures.' It's been an extraordinary journey but, alongside the private jets and exotic locations, there has been heartbreak and pain, stretching all the way back to her childhood. Brinkley was born in Monroe, Michigan, on February 2, 1954, but moved to Los Angeles when she was a young girl. Her biological father, Herbert Hudson, was, she recalls, 'unhappy, unkind and often cruel'. Hudson, who worked as a milkman, subjected his young daughter to regular whippings with his belt. Her parents divorced when she was eight and her mother married the TV writer Donald Brinkley. 'My mum just wanted to pretend that whole part of our life didn't exist,' she says. 'We never talked about it.' Even though she was living in Malibu, Brinkley fell in love with all things French. Her parents sent her to the elite private school Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles and at 18 she moved to Paris to study art. She remembers seeing Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir having dinner in Montparnasse, and she fell in love with Jean-François Allaux, who would soon become the first of her four husbands. When Allaux was drafted into the French military she got herself a dog for company – the same Bianca who would go on to change her life. After being discovered, Brinkley's life turned into a 'succession of go-sees, shoots, commercials and covers'. She and Allaux moved to New York where she would run into John Lennon and Yoko Ono holding hands in their neighbourhood. 'I made the cover of 11 magazines all published about the same time,' she remembers, 'my face was splashed across the front of Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Vogue France, Vogue Patterns, Italian and American Harper's Bazaar and several different issues of Glamour.' Alongside the modelling came other opportunities. She missed out on a role in the film Raging Bull but ended up having a side career as a boxing photographer. 'One day I was sitting in the Plaza Hotel's Edwardian Room, which looks over 59th Street and Central Park,' she says. 'I saw Muhammad Ali crossing the street. I shot up from the table and ran through the dining room, through the lobby, to the steps. I said, 'Muhammad Ali, I love you,' and he said, 'Christie Brinkley, I love you, too.' ' Brinkley asked him for ringside tickets for his upcoming fight with Larry Holmes so she could take photographs. She would later cover other boxing fights and her work was published in The Ring and Sports Illustrated magazines. With Brinkley's career having gone stratospheric – Harper's Bazaar named her one of the most beautiful women in the world – her marriage to Allaux came under strain. 'The more successful I became, the more I understood what I was missing by speeding home to keep him company.' I feel somewhat sorry for Allaux, not least because he seemed pretty much the only person Christie dated or married who did not cheat on her. 'Unfortunately, I think models do attract some of the wrong types,' she says. They divorced in 1981. Brinkley started seeing the racing driver and French champagne heir Olivier Chandon de Brailles, but she ended the relationship after he admitted cheating on her. She flew to St. Barts to get over the break-up (Chandon would later die in a car crash) and that was where she met Billy Joel. He won her over by accompanying her in a hotel bar as she sang The Girl from Ipanema. (After she had sung, another young guest approached Joel and announced she could also sing. 'I know Billy was thinking, 'Go away, kid. I'm trying to work my magic here,' but he started playing what she wanted him to, which was Respect by Aretha Franklin.' The moment she started singing, the bar fell silent, stunned by her voice. That 19-year-old woman was Whitney Houston. One month later, she would sign a worldwide record deal.) Joel and Brinkley soon started dating when they both returned to New York. It was pretty obvious what he saw in her, I say, but what did she see in him? 'First and foremost, he was so funny,' she says. 'He made me laugh so hard and it was mixed with this real sweetness, like a vulnerability. He was a very old-fashioned kind of guy – very old school, very New York, which is so different from California.' The couple were at Joel's home on Long Island when he told her about a song he had been working on. 'He suddenly said, 'I just realised something. You're who I've been writing about,' ' she recalls. 'He said he was writing this song about a fantasy girl. He had called it Uptown Girl and then had stopped working on it because it wasn't going anywhere. He said, 'I'm looking at you and I realise there you are – you're my uptown girl.' ' Joel went away to complete the song and Brinkley was with him in the studio when it was recorded. Joel and Brinkley married in March 1985 and their daughter, Alexa Ray, was born that December, but the marriage became strained after Joel started drinking heavily. In her book, Brinkley describes one incident where Joel, under the influence, picks up a chaise longue and throws it through the doors of her parents' patio, shattering the glass. 'His drinking was bigger than the both of us – booze was the other woman and it was beginning to seem that he preferred to be with 'her' rather than with me.' Brinkley divorced Joel in 1994 but they are now friends again. ('How close we can be depends on who he's married to,' she says.) Then followed two disastrous marriages. She met Richard Taubman while on a trip to Telluride in Colorado in early 1994. They married after they were both in a helicopter crash in the Colorado mountains. In their divorce proceedings just a year later, Brinkley sued him for $US2 million she said he owed her, while he fought for joint custody of their son, Jack. 'I'm not sure what led me into such a whirlwind relationship. A psychologist later diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder, which often causes people to make impulsive, irrational decisions.' But Taubman was a positive catch compared with husband number four, an architect named Peter Cook. They married in autumn 1996 and had a daughter, Sailor, but the marriage unravelled when it emerged that Cook had been having an affair with a teenager he met in a toyshop. 'How did I not see all this? How did I not know?' she says. Loading It was later revealed that Cook had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars visiting internet pornography sites. He had also shared explicit videos and images of himself on the internet while searching for more girls. 'How did I ever get involved with this person?' Brinkley says. 'You really feel stupid and then you try to learn from it, so you're not quite as stupid next time.' Brinkley turned 71 this year. 'When I started out, 30 was a number to fear,' she says. 'They said to me, 'You'll be chewed up and spat out by the time you're 30. It will all be over.'' They were, needless to say, completely wrong.
The Age
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Told she'd be ‘done by 30', at 71, Christie Brinkley is still going strong
This story is part of the July 20 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. How different might the histories of fashion photography and pop music – never mind Billy Joel's love life – have been if Bianca the dog had not been unwell in the spring of 1974? Bianca belonged to a 20-year-old American woman who had moved to Paris to get over a cheating boyfriend. When the puppy fell ill, the woman left her apartment to phone the vet. She was looking down at Bianca, who was curled up in her bag, and accidentally walked into a tall man wearing a faded green US Army jacket. He had a camera hanging around his neck. He told her he was a photographer who had a client looking for a California girl for a modelling job. 'If you're not a model, you should be,' the man said. 'You could earn a lot of money.' He asked the woman her name. She told him it was Christie Brinkley. Fast-forward to today and Brinkley is beaming in from the kitchen in her Hamptons home. In the days leading up to the interview, it was made clear that she would not be turning on her camera during our Zoom call. This made me annoyed with her before we had even started talking, but apparently there had been some misunderstanding because her camera is very much on. In conversation, Brinkley is, and I cannot stress this enough, a total hoot: funny, unaffected, open and a joy to spend 90 minutes with. We are talking about the publication of her memoir. Somewhat inevitably, it is titled Uptown Girl because if there is anything Christie Brinkley is known for, it is the song her former husband Billy Joel wrote about her and the video in which she makes a small but unforgettable appearance. 'I love the song,' she says. 'I think it's so fun that I get to have a theme song.' It's great, but there is so much more to Brinkley than being a muse. She became the world's first supermodel before the word even existed, appearing on more than 500 magazine covers, and is the only person to appear on three consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue covers. She had a record 25-year contract with the cosmetics brand CoverGirl – one of the longest modelling contracts in history. She is also a hugely successful businesswoman. As well as her fashion line, TWRHLL, she has an organic wine label called Bellissima. 'I have always wanted to try to do as many things as possible,' she says, 'have all these different experiences and fill up my life with adventures.' It's been an extraordinary journey but, alongside the private jets and exotic locations, there has been heartbreak and pain, stretching all the way back to her childhood. Brinkley was born in Monroe, Michigan, on February 2, 1954, but moved to Los Angeles when she was a young girl. Her biological father, Herbert Hudson, was, she recalls, 'unhappy, unkind and often cruel'. Hudson, who worked as a milkman, subjected his young daughter to regular whippings with his belt. Her parents divorced when she was eight and her mother married the TV writer Donald Brinkley. 'My mum just wanted to pretend that whole part of our life didn't exist,' she says. 'We never talked about it.' Even though she was living in Malibu, Brinkley fell in love with all things French. Her parents sent her to the elite private school Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles and at 18 she moved to Paris to study art. She remembers seeing Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir having dinner in Montparnasse, and she fell in love with Jean-François Allaux, who would soon become the first of her four husbands. When Allaux was drafted into the French military she got herself a dog for company – the same Bianca who would go on to change her life. After being discovered, Brinkley's life turned into a 'succession of go-sees, shoots, commercials and covers'. She and Allaux moved to New York where she would run into John Lennon and Yoko Ono holding hands in their neighbourhood. 'I made the cover of 11 magazines all published about the same time,' she remembers, 'my face was splashed across the front of Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Vogue France, Vogue Patterns, Italian and American Harper's Bazaar and several different issues of Glamour.' Alongside the modelling came other opportunities. She missed out on a role in the film Raging Bull but ended up having a side career as a boxing photographer. 'One day I was sitting in the Plaza Hotel's Edwardian Room, which looks over 59th Street and Central Park,' she says. 'I saw Muhammad Ali crossing the street. I shot up from the table and ran through the dining room, through the lobby, to the steps. I said, 'Muhammad Ali, I love you,' and he said, 'Christie Brinkley, I love you, too.' ' Brinkley asked him for ringside tickets for his upcoming fight with Larry Holmes so she could take photographs. She would later cover other boxing fights and her work was published in The Ring and Sports Illustrated magazines. With Brinkley's career having gone stratospheric – Harper's Bazaar named her one of the most beautiful women in the world – her marriage to Allaux came under strain. 'The more successful I became, the more I understood what I was missing by speeding home to keep him company.' I feel somewhat sorry for Allaux, not least because he seemed pretty much the only person Christie dated or married who did not cheat on her. 'Unfortunately, I think models do attract some of the wrong types,' she says. They divorced in 1981. Brinkley started seeing the racing driver and French champagne heir Olivier Chandon de Brailles, but she ended the relationship after he admitted cheating on her. She flew to St. Barts to get over the break-up (Chandon would later die in a car crash) and that was where she met Billy Joel. He won her over by accompanying her in a hotel bar as she sang The Girl from Ipanema. (After she had sung, another young guest approached Joel and announced she could also sing. 'I know Billy was thinking, 'Go away, kid. I'm trying to work my magic here,' but he started playing what she wanted him to, which was Respect by Aretha Franklin.' The moment she started singing, the bar fell silent, stunned by her voice. That 19-year-old woman was Whitney Houston. One month later, she would sign a worldwide record deal.) Joel and Brinkley soon started dating when they both returned to New York. It was pretty obvious what he saw in her, I say, but what did she see in him? 'First and foremost, he was so funny,' she says. 'He made me laugh so hard and it was mixed with this real sweetness, like a vulnerability. He was a very old-fashioned kind of guy – very old school, very New York, which is so different from California.' The couple were at Joel's home on Long Island when he told her about a song he had been working on. 'He suddenly said, 'I just realised something. You're who I've been writing about,' ' she recalls. 'He said he was writing this song about a fantasy girl. He had called it Uptown Girl and then had stopped working on it because it wasn't going anywhere. He said, 'I'm looking at you and I realise there you are – you're my uptown girl.' ' Joel went away to complete the song and Brinkley was with him in the studio when it was recorded. Joel and Brinkley married in March 1985 and their daughter, Alexa Ray, was born that December, but the marriage became strained after Joel started drinking heavily. In her book, Brinkley describes one incident where Joel, under the influence, picks up a chaise longue and throws it through the doors of her parents' patio, shattering the glass. 'His drinking was bigger than the both of us – booze was the other woman and it was beginning to seem that he preferred to be with 'her' rather than with me.' Brinkley divorced Joel in 1994 but they are now friends again. ('How close we can be depends on who he's married to,' she says.) Then followed two disastrous marriages. She met Richard Taubman while on a trip to Telluride in Colorado in early 1994. They married after they were both in a helicopter crash in the Colorado mountains. In their divorce proceedings just a year later, Brinkley sued him for $US2 million she said he owed her, while he fought for joint custody of their son, Jack. 'I'm not sure what led me into such a whirlwind relationship. A psychologist later diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder, which often causes people to make impulsive, irrational decisions.' But Taubman was a positive catch compared with husband number four, an architect named Peter Cook. They married in autumn 1996 and had a daughter, Sailor, but the marriage unravelled when it emerged that Cook had been having an affair with a teenager he met in a toyshop. 'How did I not see all this? How did I not know?' she says. Loading It was later revealed that Cook had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars visiting internet pornography sites. He had also shared explicit videos and images of himself on the internet while searching for more girls. 'How did I ever get involved with this person?' Brinkley says. 'You really feel stupid and then you try to learn from it, so you're not quite as stupid next time.' Brinkley turned 71 this year. 'When I started out, 30 was a number to fear,' she says. 'They said to me, 'You'll be chewed up and spat out by the time you're 30. It will all be over.'' They were, needless to say, completely wrong.
