CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. - Christie Brinkley testified at her divorce trial Thursday that the day she learned her husband was having an affair with a teenager was the day 鈥渕y life as I knew it had vanished.鈥 /p>
The former Sports Illustrated model took the stand in state Supreme Court, a day after testimony by her architect-husband, Peter Cook, and his former mistress.
Brian Platt, a police officer and the stepfather of the 18-year-old, informed Brinkley of the affair at a 2006 graduation at Southampton High School where the model was a speaker.
He tapped her on the shoulder, she tearfully recalled, and said, 鈥淭hat husband of yours won鈥檛 knock it off. He鈥檚 having an affair with my teenage daughter.鈥 /p>
Brinkley said she looked at Cook, sitting in the front row, and when he shook his head in denial, she thought: 鈥淢y God, it鈥檚 true. He did do that.鈥 /p>
鈥淭hat was also the day that my world was completely shattered,鈥 said Brinkley.
Later, Brinkley鈥檚 mood brightened slightly when her cross examiner tried to portray her testimony as acting.
鈥淚f you want to call me an actress, that鈥檚 fine. I鈥檓 no Meryl Streep, but I have been in a very successful movie,鈥 she said with a sheepish smile while referring to 鈥淣ational Lampoon鈥檚 Vacation.鈥 /p>
鈥淭hirty years later it鈥檚 still got legs,鈥 she said.
During his testimony Wednesday, Cook said he had given his mistress, Diana Bianchi, a $300,000 payoff, had trysts in his office and Brinkley鈥檚 Hamptons homes, and spent thousands of dollars on online porn.
Brinkley said she told Cook to give her his computer passwords 鈥渋f you鈥檝e got nothing to hide.鈥 She found e-mails there from Bianchi and the porn sites Cook visited.
鈥淚 know a lot of men look鈥 at pornographic sites, she said. But, in Cook鈥檚 case, she said he was trying 鈥渢o connect with people鈥 in their neighborhood.
鈥淚t was not a voyeur site. It was a meeting site,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was more than I could bear.鈥 /p>
Cook had testified that he and Brinkley used pornography 鈥渢o get the mood going.鈥 /p>
Before learning of the affair, Brinkley said the biggest problem she perceived in their marriage was Cook鈥檚 relationship with Alexa Ray Joel, her daughter with Billy Joel.
Brinkley said Cook constantly picked on her 22-year-old daughter for the slightest things. 鈥淚t was truly the area that pained me in our marriage,鈥 she said.
It distressed her, too, that Cook didn鈥檛 want Alexa Joel to play the piano, especially since 鈥淚 feel as though she鈥檚 made my life a musical.鈥 br />Source
Category: 
July 6, 2008
