The messy divorce trial between former supermodel Christie Brinkley and Hamptons architect Peter Cook is set to resume Monday and we can all expect further disturbing confessions to be made in that Long Island courtroom.
The first week of the divorce was disastrous for Peter Cook’s image. His internet porn habit was fully revealed, his infidelity with the 18-year-old assistant detailed, his betrayal of Christie Brinkley bitterly recounted.
Christie Brinkley was understandably shaken when she took the stand, describing with vivid detail the day she learned of her husband’s extramarital affair, from no other than the police officer stepfather of the mistress.
Peter Cook admitted everything: thousands of dollars spent annually on online porn, his affair with the teenage assistant, his attempt to buy her silence.
Christie Brinkley testified how her “perfect” marriage went up in smoke all of a sudden and how she felt “shattered” by her husband’s betrayal.
The next stage of the trial however belongs to Peter Cook’s legal team and they plan to counter last week’s attack. The architect’s attorneys told the New York Daily News that they will fight for Peter Cook’s right to have his children.
"Our strategy is to wait to get to our side of the story," Cook lawyer Norman Sheresky told the Daily News. "He's a great, great father. She is an angry, angry, angry, furious woman."
The “angry, angry, angry, furious woman” broke into tears last week in the courtroom. This is the fourth marriage to end for Christie Brinkley, 54, who has a 22-year-old daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, from her marriage to singer Billy Joel.
She and Peter Cook, 49, wed in 1996. They have a 9-year-old daughter, Sailor; Cook has also adopted the former model’s 12-year-old son, Jack, from her marriage to Richard Taubman.
Financial issues are not the main focus of the trial, as they have a prenuptial agreement. The custody of their children is though.
Christie Brinkley filed for divorce 10 years into their
marriage after Cook’s affair with the young assistant became a tabloid scandal.