Local and international news media, including the New York Daily News, have reported that the ongoing battle between model, Christie Brinkley, and her former husband, Peter Cook, has been stealing headlines over new accusations of failed child custody payments and negative sensationalism.
Cook claims that Brinkley is complaining about him to the press for the sole purpose of advertising her return to stage work. In attempting to “publicly castrate” him Brinkley is only “throwing” her “family under the bus” according to Cook.
In an interview with ABC News Cook said, “She can use her celebrity to get the media to say, 'He's a bad guy.' You know ... I'm not trying to sell tickets to anything...”
Cook states that Brinkley’s campaign to show him in a negative light is hurting not only his reputation, but also the couple’s two children, sixteen-year-old Jack and thirteen-year-old Sailor.
In November, Brinkley filed court papers demanding that Cook pay her $32,000 for child support. Brinkley claimed that Cook neglected to pay support for five months. Cook maintains that he had full custody of the two children for the five months he didn’t pay Brinkley for their upkeep.
In defense of his actions Cook said, “I pay more child support than I was required to by court. I do the kids' laundry, I cook the kids' food. I drive them to school. I run their errands. I do their homework with them. It's me. With her resources, if I was a bad guy-if you had $80 million would you let a bad guy have your kids for a day? Or would you fight him so he never has contact with those children again? Am I the villain that you're going to publicly castrate as she's doing currently in the press or am I the good dad? Because in a few weeks she's going to surrender the kids to me again…”
Over the first week of March, both sides released statements regarding their child support argument.
Cook, on another televised newscast, in which he hoped to regain his reputation as a responsible father, said, “I'm not here to attack Christie Brinkley, but to defend myself. To be called a deadbeat dad is such a horrible, spiteful, vengeful thing to say besides the fact that it's totally untrue.”
Allegedly, when Brinkley does return to work on the stage, Cook is poised to regain full custody of their children again.
This statement was released on Brinkley’s behalf: “Peter Cook is the only one to go on national television spewing sexist, disgraceful, demonstrably false lies, which gives a taste of the bullying and harassment Christie has had to endure. Peter is the only one who betrayed his marriage vows, embarrassed himself and hurt his family by having an affair with a teenage girl and admitting to a extensive pornography habit. And while Christie, a single mother who has been the sole provider for her family, was working on Broadway, he refused her access to her children on her one day off. Christie quietly filed a motion four months ago to try and put an end to Peter’s pattern of intimidation and ongoing smear campaign, but sadly, he responded by turning it into a self-serving circus-like publicity tour, yet again breaking the confidentiality agreement that Christie alone has upheld.”
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