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Jul 18, 2006 1:32 pm US/Eastern
Christie Brinkley Separation Explodes In Scandal
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
A 19-year-old former employee of Christie Brinkley's husband, Peter Cook, said the older man hired her and seduced her with lavish gifts, then attempted to woo her back with repeated notes and phone calls after the teenager broke off their affair.
Diana Bianchi told the New York Post that Cook made advances on her shortly after she took a job at his architecture firm.
The interview appears less than a week after the 52-year-old Brinkley announced that she and Cook had separated. Cook is the supermodel's fourth husband. They married in 1996 and have a daughter
Bianchi said she first met Cook when she was a 17-year-old toy store clerk, but he made his intentions clear when she was a year older.
Bianchi's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, told the Post that the pair had a sexual relationship that spanned about one year. Tacopina told the Associated Press that the couple's relationship was consensual. But he claimed Cook's role as employer and his gifts of a car, money and jewelry could possibly constitute sexual harassment.
A message left for Cook at his Long Island architecture firm was not immediately returned.
Brinkley's spokesman had no comment on Bianchi's claims.
Tacopina said that Bianchi, an aspiring singer, quit her job at Cook's firm within a few months after she started in May 2005 because, she felt uncomfortable.
Brinkley was previously married to Frenchman Jean-Francois Allaux, singer Billy Joel and developer Richard Taubman.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
