Christie Brinkley Requests Restraining Order Against Ex-Husband
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — The highly public divorce battle between Christie Brinkley and her ex-husband may be settled, but the couple's bitter dispute is heating up again.
Brinkley asked a Suffolk County court to shield the couple's two children from a televised interview, scheduled to air Friday on ABC, in which Peter Cook explains his affair with a teenager and his Internet porn proclivities.
But a judge on Thursday denied her request to cancel Cook's weekend visitation with the children, his lawyer Jim Winkler told Newsday. Winkler said the order was unnecessary and that Cook had no intention of exposing the children to the Barbara Walters interview on "20/20."
Brinkley lawyer Robert Stephan Cohen did not immediately return a call seeking confirmation. Cohen filed papers on Wednesday seeking a temporary restraining order and a post-judgment order, saying in a statement: "His parenting has to be away from his home and he can't expose them to the `20/20' broadcast."
In a statement released to Newsday, Cohen said: "It is a measure of Peter Cook's character that he has breached the confidentiality agreement that is in the divorce settlement and has sought to present this distorted, one-sided view of his marriage."
"Mr. Cook had his days in court," the statement said, "testified on his own behalf and ultimately agreed with the view of the children's court-appointed attorney and psychiatrist that the children should live principally with their mother and that she should be the sole custodial parent."
The nasty divorce trial ended in mid-July when the couple reached an out-of-court settlement: She got custody of the two children and kept property, while he received $2.1 million from Brinkley and liberal visitation rights. The divorce became official Sept. 29.
The weeklong trial featured salacious testimony about Cook's affair with a teenager and his use of Internet porn.
Cook, an architect, explained those allegations in the interview.
"I was seeking a connection I could not find in my own marriage," he told Walters. "I think the emotional aspect of our lives had changed. I think we were both feeling more like we were living with a brother and sister than a life partner."
Cook said he agreed to the interview hoping "the world will see that I'm not the scumbag pervert that I've been painted to be. The misinformation that came out during the trial is the elephant in the room. It's the elephant in the room for my kids."
The divorce settlement gave Brinkley custody of the couple's 10-year-old daughter Sailor and 13-year-old son Jack, whom Cook adopted. Jack's biological father was Brinkley's third husband. The marriage was Brinkley's fourth and Cook's first.
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Associated Press Writer Marcus Franklin contributed to this report from New York.
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FRANK ELTMAN | 10/ 9/08 09:24 PM |