Christie Brinkley as she comes face to face with 21-year-old who stole her husband
Former supermodel Christie Brinkley came face to face with the 21-year-old who had an affair with her husband on the opening day of the couple’s bitter divorce trial.
Brinkley’s estranged husband Peter Cook and his former lover Diana Bianchi, 21, both spoke about their brief affair during the public trial in a Long Island, New York court.
Miss Bianchi was 18 and working as Mr Cook’s personal assistant at his architectural practice when the affair happened. He met her in early 2005 when she was 18 and working at a toy store.
Their affair began that March, around the time he hired her.
She was paid a salary of around £10,000 to type magazine articles on to the company’s website.
He also left her cash payments in various spots – £250 under the rock outside his office, more behind a painting, and gave her £7,500 to help her purchase a car.
Before their relationship ended in late 2005, they had sex in the office a number of times, and at homes in the Hamptons owned by Miss Brinkley.
Testifying in court yesterday, Miss Bianchi said: ‘He had shown interest in me, and I reciprocated. In his office he asked me how I would feel if he told me that he was attracted to me and that’s really how it all started.
‘I think I was a little taken aback, but I wasn’t against it either really. I wouldn’t say that one of us pushed the other. I would say that it was a mutual thing.’
Cook said their affair lasted ‘less than a year’ and he recalled they had sex about 12 times in various locations.
The affair was revealed when Miss Bianchi’s stepfather, a policeman, confronted Cook and accused him of taking advantage of the teenager.
The fling stunned Long Island society, of which Miss Brinkley is a leading light.
She filed for divorce two years ago as it emerged that Cook had paid Miss Bianchi £150,000 ’shut-up’ money.
Miss Brinkley also intends to call as a witness a married woman who left her husband for Cook and was then dumped by him.
During opening arguments at Central Islip Court on New York’s Long Island, Miss Brinkley’s lawyer Stephen Cohen said Cook visited websites devoted to sexual swingers – using their 12-year-old son Jack’s name.
Jack is Miss Brinkley’s son from her third marriage, to property developer Richard Taubma.
Cook, her fourth husband, adopted Jack shortly after they wed in 1996.
Mr Cook acknowledged his porn usage and admitted their son Jack caught a glimpse of the adult material by accident in 2006.
He sobbed: ‘He said, “Mom is looking at naked pictures of your girlfriends on the computer.”‘
Mr Cook claimed his wife sometimes joined him when looking at pornographic material.
His lawyer said: ‘It was a precursor to sex.’
Miss Brinkley fought to have the hearing held in public, saying her children needed to know the truth about the break-up.
In court yesterday, Mr Cook’s lawyer Norman Sheresky attacked the model for failing to protect her children from the couple’s bitter divorce battle.
He said: ‘For goodness sake: She’s on her fourth husband.
‘Your honour, we’re here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a woman scorned. What kind of a mother wants her husband flogged in public.
‘Opening the case to the public is bad for the kids. That’s not good motherhood, that’s not acceptable.
‘She wants nothing but to get even. She and her lawyers and her PR people are pitching a new history.’
The couple are battling for custody of Jack and his sister Sailor, 10.
Miss Brinkley also has a 22-year-old daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, from her marriage to Billy Joel, her second husband.
Taking to the stand yesterday, Miss Joel said her relationship with Mr Cook was good at first, but it began to disintegrate after he married her mother.
She said: ‘He was just very critical of me in general.’
She claimed Mr Cook reacted in an angry manner towards her in 2003 when her lengthy shower caused a leak in the kitchen below at the family’s home.
Miss Joel said: ‘He was pushing me down the stairs… I went down in a towel… and the drips were already coming down into the bucket. He shoved my head into a bucket and said, “You clean this up.”‘
The 54-year-old mother of three – the inspiration for Joel’s hit Uptown Girl – intends to bring 44 witnesses in the case.
Cook’s current girlfriend and an interior designer he briefly dated are also expected to be hauled into court.
At the opening yesterday Mr Cohen called Cook ‘a liar, drunkard and adulterer’ who spent £1,800 a month on porn but failed to contribute to household expenses.
Cook’s lawyer said his client had acknowledged he had used porn. ‘It was wrong and he said it was wrong,’ he said.
Regarding the affair, the lawyer told the court: ‘Peter has apologised.
‘He’s cried his eyes out. He’s lost his marriage.’
Cook wants full custody of the children, whom he sees every other weekend, claiming that Miss Brinkley employs nannies to look after them.
Leaving court yesterday afternoon, Miss Brinkley said: ‘I need some time to let it all absorb.’
The trial continues.
