Christie Brinkley had the appearance everyone coveted in the bright and vivid 1980s.
Christie has had a lot of drama in her life behind the gorgeous façade and all the splendour. The supermodel has faced horrible losses, including nearly dying in a helicopter crash.
So, where is the iconic model nowadays?
It’s hard to imagine, but she’s still as stunning as ever at 68…
A California surfer girl
Christie Lee was born on February 1954 in Monroe, Michigan. Christie grew up in the Los Angeles neighbourhoods after moving to California with her family. Christie made early links between the entertainment business and Hollywood.
Her mother, Marjorie, married a well-known television writer named Donald Brinkley.
Donald created nearly 400 teleplays, but he is best known for creating and producing hit shows such as Medical Center and Trapper John M.D.
Donald would subsequently adopt Christie and her brother Greg officially. They addressed him as their father, not as their stepfather.
Christie travelled to Europe after graduating from the French School of Los Angeles in 1972 to study painting in Paris and “be so bohemian.” She settled down after working as an apprentice illustrator for two years.
When American photographer Errol Sawyer found the blonde beauty in 1973, the trip to Paris would change her life forever.
On her way to call a veterinarian, Christie was strolling down the street with her puppy in a basket when Sawyer noticed her.
The photographer requested that he may photograph her for modelling purposes, which launched her into a long and successful career as a model.
On the other hand, Christie had no idea her visage would end up on thousands of magazine covers worldwide. “I was a California surfer chick. “I was never a model,” she told New York Magazine in 2008.
Receiving a 25-year contract
Christie has been introduced to other modelling agencies thanks to Errol Sawyer. She eventually had a lunch appointment with Eileen Ford, who operated one of the world’s major modelling agencies. Christie then agreed to launch three massive national advertising programmes across the United States.
Many jobs followed. The teenage model graced the cover of Glamour magazine and secured a record-breaking contract with CoverGirl cosmetics.
The deal was one of the most extended model contracts ever drafted, lasting 25 years. Christie was on the classic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover from 1979 to 1981, marking the first time the same model graced the body for three years.
“When I first started out, a bunch of successful models told me, ‘You will be burned up and tossed away by the time you’re 30,” Christie told People in 2011.
Christie, the epitome of American beauty, also had two calendars created for her by Sports Illustrated. Her face was nearly everywhere in the early 1980s.
She came to represent the entire decade. According to New York Magazine, Brinkley’s style typified the Reagan Cold War years and represented “a kind of fiercely naïve American sunniness.”
The lady driving the red Ferrari
Christie intended to pursue acting after breaking into the modelling industry.
In 1997, she reprised her role as the blonde beauty with the red Ferrari in another Vacation film.
Christie has also made numerous television appearances and has been in multiple music videos, the most well-known of which was perhaps Billy Joel’s legendary “Uptown Girl.”
On the NBC series Parks and Recreation, many people recognise her as Gayle Gergich, the wife of parks department employee Garry Gergich.
Most recently, the renowned model competed in the hit show The Masked Singer.
Christie Brinkley’s first marriage
Christie might not give you dating advice after going through four divorces.
However, considering her ex-husbands and everything she’s been through, many exciting aspects may be worth telling about.
Christie indicated that she wished to leave the United States and live a bohemian lifestyle in Paris in the 1970s. Perhaps the most potent symbol of this? Her marriage to Jean-François Allaux, a French artist. The pair married in 1973, remained married until 1981, and never had children.
Tragic Love Story
After her divorce, Christie began seeing another Frenchman, Oliver Chandon de Brailles. Oliver was the heir to the Mot-Chandon Champagne fortune and hailed from a very different world than Christie’s ex-husband.
The couple met in 1982 at New York’s famed Studio 54 when Christie promoted her Sports Illustrated calendar.
At the time, Olivier remarked on the relationship and told the media that he admired his girlfriend’s beauty, but “her simplicity is fundamental to me”. On the other hand, Christie felt compelled to interject, saying, “He doesn’t mean simple-minded!” But their love tale would end in tragedy.
Christie and Oliver, who were frequently spotted together and pursued by paparazzi, were going to meet on the day Oliver died. She had called him barely an hour before the terrible accident to set up a meeting in Palm Beach. However, after learning about the horrible tragedy, she decided to remain in California.
Getting married to Billy Joel
They were madly in love, and the Grammy-winning singer is said to have written the famous song “Uptown Girl” for Christie.
Two years later, in front of 200 guests, the celebrity couple married on a yacht on the Hudson River.
Christie’s immediate relatives attended the wedding, but other notable attendees included artist Paul Simon and the band Stray Cats.
The couple was married until 1994 and had one daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, on December 29, 1985. Ray Charles, one of Billy Joel’s musical inspirations, inspired Alexa’s middle name.
Although Christie and Billy Joel divorced, their marriage between the uptown girl and the piano man remains famous.
Crash of a Helicopter
Christie met real estate developer Richard Taubman in 1994 while still married to Billy Joel. He proposed to Christie, although she was married at the time.
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