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.
The pair married in Telluride, Colorado, in December 1994. The team married at 12,000 feet in ski boots in front of 100 guests. The couple then skied down the mountain into the setting light. The location held significant meaning for the supermodel. The terrifying occurrence occurred during a heli-ski trip in April 1994. Christie, Taubman, and two others were stuck for hours on the mountainside after their chopper crashed. “I’m not sure what happened. “It felt like the mountain was dragging us in,” Christie explained to Entertainment Tonight in 1994. Christie was reported to have minor injuries at the time of the collision. Taubman was hospitalised with shattered ribs, a broken collarbone, and a punctured lung.
Christe had to live with the scars and trauma for an extended period. She had years of hip pain due to the crash and finally got a total hip replacement in 2021. Fortunately, the procedure went well.
“I had my surgery at Thanksgiving, and by New Years Eve, I was dancing in my kitchen, and today I put on my long fins and toured the coral reefs driven by my new hip,” she posted on Instagram.
Christie and Taubman’s first marriage lasted only one year. They split soon after the birth of their son, Jack Paris Brinkley, on June 2, 1995.
Christie reconnected with architect Peter Halsey Cook, whom she met while modelling in 1979, in 1996.
After being reintroduced, they married at a ranch in Bridgehampton, New York. Billy Joel, Christie’s ex-husband, was among the attendees.
Christe and Peter Cook shared one child. Sailor Lee Brinkley Cook, their daughter, was born in 1998 and has followed in her mother’s footsteps.
Christie stated that after three disastrous marriages, she had finally found the guy of her dreams.
On the other hand, her marriage to Peter Cook resulted in a contentious divorce and custody struggle. The pair announced their intention to divorce in 2006.
The divorce resulted in a fierce battle in the Long Island courthouse, closely followed by the television news and every New York tabloid.
A lot of information came to light. Cook, for example, had an affair with a youngster exposed. Cook met Diana Bianchi in a local toy store in 2004 while shopping for gifts for his children. Diana had just graduated from high school when Cook made a move on her.
He employed her as an assistant at his firm, and they began an affair that lasted months.
Christie’s husband paid their 18-year-old employee $300,000 to be silent and lavished her with extravagant presents.
Christie and Cook finalised their divorce in 2008. Cook stated his views on marriage in an interview with Barbara Walters several months before it became public.
He blamed Christie.
“Now and again, I wanted a little acknowledgement, a little attention, a little thank-you for my efforts, for the amount of time,” he explained.
Christie was granted full custody of the couple’s children and assets as part of the divorce settlement. Cook received a $2.1 million stipend and “parenting time.”
“I didn’t want to go through with this trial. “It’s embarrassing for all of us,” Christie admitted.
After splitting up with Christie, Cook began dating another gorgeous woman, Suzanne Shaw. Christie, on the other hand, had warned her about her ex-disposition. Husband Suzanne, on the other hand, chose to disregard it.
She married Cook but subsequently regretted not listening because Suzanne, according to herself, went through many of the same things as Christie.
“Christie was unfairly portrayed as an enraged ex-wife. “I regret causing Christie any unnecessary sorrow,” Suzanne wrote.
Today’s Christie Brinkley
Christie Brinkley, 68, has had a career spanning more than three decades and still has a lot on her plate. However, the once blond bombshell model is now an entrepreneur.
She has her line of cosmetics and spectacles. She also offers wine under Bellissima Prosecco, an organic sparkling wine label.
Christie is also a vocal advocate for animal rights and the environment. She has spoken out at the United Nations against nuclear weapons and power plants and has been active in anti-elephant and rhino poaching campaigns.
Christie is a vocal advocate for human and animal rights and the environment.
She has spoken out at the United Nations against nuclear weapons and power plants and has been active in anti-elephant and rhino poaching campaigns.
Since she was 13, the Los Angeles native has been a vegetarian, and she has persuaded all her children to stop eating meat. Christie claims she has a close relationship with her two daughters and her two sons. Her recipe for keeping a healthy relationship with the kids?
“I believe that good real estate is the key—have a property on the coast, and you will see your kids!” In all honesty, it is simply spending time together, and there is no substitute for that.
“It’s being there for them regardless of what happens in their lives,” she explains.
Christie Brinkley Residence
Christie lives in Bridgehampton, Suffolk County, on Long Island’s South Shore. She paid $3.2 million for her home 23 years ago.
The gated mansion on 20 acres contains four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a classic kitchen, and several sitting areas. The National Lampoon’s Vacation star frequently posts photos of her home, its stunning surroundings, and when her children visit.
Cosmetic surgery
She’s a highly active 68-year-old, as you might expect. “I like to exercise so that I am always able to move, and I want to eat nutritious foods so that I am nourishing my body, and I must say, typically, I am the one who is still going while people younger than me are fading!” she explained in an interview with Hello Magazine.
Christie astonished us once more by posting a picture of herself, looking amazingly athletic with her abs and toned legs, only days before her 67th birthday in 2021. “Turning 50 for the 17th time!” she jokingly captioned her photo. It was time again on February 2, 2022, her 68th birthday.
Her youthful appearance, however, is not entirely genuine. Christie has admitted to getting some treatment and has used non-surgical anti-ageing techniques. Among her cosmetic procedures is the injectable Xeomin, sometimes referred to as a Botox alternative.
“I was wondering if people would think I’m a phoney and a fraud.” But it’s best to be upfront and say, “Yeah, this is what I do,” she says.
Everyone ages, some more quickly than others. That being said, Christie’s work has always been more natural! And she’s still as stunning as ever, in my opinion! Don’t you think so?
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