A scandal unfolds: Supermodel Christie Brinkley (left); her husband Peter Cook and his former mistress Diana Bianchi outside the New York State Supreme Court building. Photo: AP
A $300,000 payoff to a teenage mistress. Thousands of dollars of online porn. Extramarital trysts in the office and his supermodel wife's Hamptons homes.
Sensational testimony about Christie Brinkley's estranged husband opened their divorce trial in Central Islip court in Long Island on Wednesday, giving the public a salacious peek into the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model's fourth marriage.
The husband, architect Peter Cook, testified that he and Brinkley used pornography "to get the mood going". Alexa Ray Joel, Brinkley's daughter with "Piano Man" Billy Joel, said Mr Cook once shoved her head into a bucket of water. And Diana Bianchi, the young woman whose affair with him set off a tabloid frenzy and ended the couple's marriage, testified that he hid cash for her under a rock and gave her $15,000 to help her buy a Nissan Maxima in 2005.
Mr Cook told the court at the start of the divorce trial that he had sex with his young lover in the office of his Hamptons architectural firm, then paid her $300,000 while hoping to keep their affair quiet.
Earlier, the former supermodel's lawyer said Mr Cook spent about $3000 a month on pornographic websites. "That is the man who's come before this court and asked for custody of his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter," attorney Robert Stephan Cohen said.
Mr Cook's lawyer, Norman Sheresky, said of the porn allegation that his client had acknowledged it. "It was wrong and he said it was wrong," Mr Sheresky said.
But the main focus of the trial is Mr Cook's affair with the then 18-year-old, which set off a frenzy in the tabloids. "Peter has apologised. He's cried his eyes out," Mr Sheresky said. "He's lost his marriage."
Mr Sheresky said Brinkley was partly to blame for the public spectacle. "For goodness sake, she's on her fourth husband," he told the court. "Your honour, we're here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a woman scorned."
Brinkley, 54, and Mr Cook, 49, wed in 1996. She filed for divorce a decade later, after his affair with Ms Bianchi exploded into public view. Mr Cook said he met Ms Bianchi in early 2005 when she was working at a Hamptons toy store. Their affair began that March, about the time that he hired her. She was paid $20,000 to type magazine articles on to the company's website. He also left her cash payments in various spots: $500 under the rock outside his office; more behind a painting.
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 Brinkley.
Ms Bianchi was given the $300,000 in May 2007. The exact purpose of the money was not specified, but Mr Cook said he was trying to protect himself and his family from scandal.
Mr Cohen said Brinkley paid for everything throughout the marriage as her husband "quickly transformed himself as a person to the manor born". But custody, rather than money, is the couple's main dispute.
Brinkley's ownership of her $US30 million ($A31.3 million) Bridgehampton home is not being contested.
Mr Cohen said his client was a doting mother whose work schedule revolved around her children. Ex-husband Billy Joel is also involved in their lives.
Mr Sheresky said there was ample evidence that Mr Cook was a good parent, including interviews in which Brinkley referred to him as "the best dad in the world".
The lawyer quoted Brinkley as saying: "Peter is our rock." He blasted Brinkley for wanting to keep the trial open to the public.
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