NEW YORK — The estranged husband of Christie Brinkley has until now kept silent about recent reports that he had an affair with a teenage employee while married to the supermodel. Now his reportedly desperate apology is receiving a very public airing.
“This is an aberration,” Peter Cook said through a lawyer, according to a column by Cindy Adams that was published Tuesday in the New York Post. “I’m sorry. I’m contrite. I’m stupid. Foolish. No excuse.”
Adams wrote that the 47-year-old’s words were provided to her by his attorney, Norman Sheresky.
“I love my wife. … For a lifetime I’ve tried to prove how much I love her,” Cook said, according to the article. Sheresky said that Cook, the model’s fourth husband, is hoping for a reconciliation with Brinkley, 52.
“He got involved, in over his head somehow, and he wants to make it up to her for the rest of his life,” said Sheresky, who also defended Cook as a “man who loves his wife and who loves his children.”
Brinkley’s publicist, Elliot Mintz, told The Associated Press early Tuesday that he did not believe she would ask him to issue a response.
“This is not the way for people to have a discourse or a discussion about private matters,” he said.
The couple’s separation exploded in scandal earlier this month when 19-year-old Diana Bianchi claimed Cook had seduced her shortly after hiring her to work at his architecture firm.
The teenager’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, described the relationship as consensual, but claimed Cook’s role as employer and his gifts of a car, money and jewelry could possibly constitute sexual harassment.
“The idea that the other person involved didn’t knowingly consent to this relationship is garbage,” said Sheresky, who quoted Cook as saying, “I took no advantage.”
A message left for Tacopina at his office early Tuesday was not immediately returned.
Days after Bianchi came forward, a 29-year-old woman told the Post that Cook had proposed marriage to her when she was 19, a month before he became engaged to Brinkley.
According to the report, Sheresky said that Cook would respect Brinkley’s wishes, whatever the result.
“He hopes there’s no divorce. IF she wants one, and he certainly hopes this doesn’t happen, but IF – it will not be nasty,” Sheresky said, according to the Post. “She can have whatever she wants.”