Christie Brinkley Was ‘Wrongly Vilified’ by Her Husband’s New Wife amid Public Divorce & Custody Battle

Christie Brinkley tried to warn Suzanne Shaw about her former husband's unfaithful tendencies, but the woman chose to join the man in wrongly vilifying her — that is until he cheated on her too. Here are the details.

Christie Brinkley married Peter Cook for love, but somewhere along the line, they lost that love, and things started getting out of hand.

When the two got divorced, Cook's addiction and affair with his 18-year-old secretary were revealed, creating enmity between the two.

After the divorce, the pair who share two children got engaged in a messy custody battle that saw Cook refer to Brinkley as a "narcissistic egomaniac" who owed him money.

He would later move on with another gorgeous woman named Suzanne Shaw. Brinkley tried to warn Shaw about his terrible behavior, but the woman vilified her instead of listening.

Shaw would later regret it because she and Cook encountered the same issues he and Brinkley had. Keep reading to know more about Cook's relationship with the two women.

Brinkley and Cook married in 1996 and initially she thought Cook was her "knight in shining armor," but when they divorced, she lamented:

"My world was completely shattered. My life as I knew it had vanished."

COOK AND BRINKLEY'S DIVORCE

Christie Brinkley's divorce from Peter Cook was highly publicized because she had been a model. The two got married in 1996 and went on to have a child together.

The model entered the relationship as a mother of two, and Cook adopted the youngest of them, Jack. Their only child together, Sailor, was born later on in 1998.

They raised the kids together, and Cook was a good father for the most part; in fact, it was his duty as a father that took him to the shop where he met the woman, then barely a girl, who ruined his marriage.

Her name is Diana Bianchi, and Cook ran into her in 2004 at a local toy store where he stopped to get presents for his kids. At the time, she had just been fresh out of high school and was working as a clerk but had dreams of being a singer.

After some time, he employed her as his assistant at his architectural firm, and the affair began when he made a pass at her — she had turned 18.

Brinkley's world was turned upside down in 2006 when Bianchi's stepfather confronted her after she gave a high school commencement speech in Southampton.

After her discovery, Brinkley became uncaring and vindictive, but even though Cook begged for her forgiveness, the former model refused to soften her heart toward him. It was payback time, and she was bent on getting out of the relationship.

In court, he broke down in tears, showing remorse, but even that was not enough to repair the damage, and rather than resonate with his remorse, Brinkley merely turned away.

THE REASONS HE GAVE

There can be no flames without smoke, and this is particularly true where marriages are concerned. Yes, they don't just fall apart, something triggers the rift, and many other factors may contribute to widening it.

Shaw accused him of having a "secret pathological predilection" for young women.

When Cook opened up about his cheating and the reasons, he revealed that he had been looking for a connection his wife simply couldn't provide.

In an unbelievable chat with Barbara Walters, the architect stated that he stepped out on Brinkley because he could not offer him the emotional support he required at home. He said:

"I wanted a little acknowledgement, a little attention, a little thank-you every now and then for my efforts, for the amount of time I took to care for her and my family, for the wealth I was building..."

Before things fell off, Cook had reportedly been very fixated on Brinkley, but she had only made him feel like a guest in his own home.

During their divorce, Cook described Brinkley as a lazy wife who spent an excessive amount of her day messing around with makeup.

The architect revealed many more personal details about their divorce and relationship, even though a confidentiality clause should have prevented him from doing so.

THE FINAL SETTLEMENT

The end of Brinkley's relationship with Cook was acrimonious, and the custody battle that followed was just as messy as the divorce proceedings.

In 2008, the two finally reached a divorce settlement, and Brinkley celebrated with friends and family later on at her apartment — then she took a long nap.

It was a well-deserved celebration, and it marked the end of a messy divorce trial with Cook; Brinkley walked away with the kids, the property, and the pride of exposing her unfaithful husband for what he was — 'a teen skirt chaser.'

Cook was awarded $2.1 million, most of which would have gone to his lawyers, and he lost Sweet Freedom — the small fishing boat Brinkley gave him on his 40th birthday.

After they reached an agreement, both Cook and Brinkley seemed pleased with the result, but her smile somehow seemed more genuine and brighter.

Cook had requested joint custody of their kids, but in the end, he had lost that to Brinkley, who was given sole legal custody and decision-making power over them.

Of course, Cook was given visitation rights, and he also gave up his claim to 18 properties Brinkley bought while they were married.

The architect said at the time that he had gotten all he'd been asking for two years, but that doesn't change the fact that the divorce had soiled his reputation.

SHAW'S APOLOGY

Despite all the news circulating about Cook and what he got up to in his first marriage, Suzanne Shaw chose to give him a chance and later married him.

Brinkley tried to warn her, but Shaw had chosen to vilify her rather than heed her warnings. The woman realized her folly later on after Cook treated her the same way he had treated Brinkley.

After their split, Shaw decided an apology was in order, and she reached out to Brinkley privately to convey her heartfelt apology for causing her "any unnecessary pain."

Thinking it was not enough, Shaw also went public with the apology, revealing to those who would listen that Brinkley had been wrongly vilified as an "embittered ex-wife" when she was only trying to help. After her split with Cook in 2014, Shaw accused him of having a "secret pathological predilection" for young women.

BRINKLEY AND COOK NOW

Since their relationship ended, Brinkley and Cook have moved on with their lives; Since his relationship with Shaw fell through, Cook has moved on to a girl named Alba Jancou, a psychology student.

The two got engaged in Greece in September 2019, but scrutiny has plagued the relationship because of their age.

According to Page Six, the two met recently after she graduated High school, but nothing romantic happened between them until she was 19 and a half.

The architect tried to lie about her age to Page Six, swearing through his agent that she was 21 when in truth, Jancou was a year younger. Nevertheless, the two seem to be very enamored by each other and are now engaged to be married.

On her part, Brinkley moved on with Singer John Mellencamp, whom she first met at a Hamptons party in 2015. The two had bonded over their age and kids (she is mother to three while Mellencamp has five children and six grandkids).

The relationship lasted for about a year but had to end because there was a lot of demand from their jobs and a lot of mileage between their homes. They decided to remain best of friends, but a romantic relationship was taken off the table.