Christie Lee Brinkley was born on February 2, 1954, in Monroe, Michigan.
Her mother, Marjorie worked in the Television industry while her adopted father, Donald Brinkley was a writer who wrote over 400 teleplays. He adopted Christie Brinkley and her brother Greg and they always referred to him as their father and not stepfather.
Christie Brinkley graduated from the French School of Los Angeles in 1972 and moved to Europe to study in Paris.
In 1973, she was discovered by an American photographer Errol Sawyer. He spotted her when she was walking down the street with her dog in a basket. He walked up to her and asked if he would take modeling pictures of her. She obliged and that’s how her modeling career started.
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She told New York Magazine in 2008, ”I was a surfer girl from California. I never looked like a model.”
She was able to sign a deal with three major advertising companies in the U.S and her face was soon on thousands of magazines worldwide.
She became one of the longest model contracts ever after she signed a contract with the cosmetic brand CoverGirl and it lasted for 25 years.
Christie told People in 2011, ”When I started, I remember very clearly a group of successful models saying, ‘You will be burned up and thrown away by the time you’re 30.”
Christie Brinkley took the modeling world by storm and she went on to Hollywood. Her first role was in the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation in 1983 where she played opposite Chevy Chase as ”The girl in the red Ferrari.”
After having her breakthrough in modeling and acting she moved on to Broadway in 2010 acting as Roxie Hart in the long-running musical Chicago.
Christie Brinkley has a tragic love. In 1973 she got married to French artist Jean-François Allaux and divorced in 1981.
She went to date another Frenchman, Oliver Chandon de Brailles. Sadly, Oliver passed away in 1983 after a horrific car crash on a racetrack in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Christie Brinkley was lucky to find love once again and got married to Billy Joel. Their marriage ended in 1994 and they have a child together, Alexa Ray Joel, born December 29, 1985.
The model once again got married to Richard Taubman the same year she divorced Billy Joel. They were seeing each other while she was still married to Billy.
Her last marriage was to architect Peter Halsey Cook. Christie believed he was his last but their marriage ended in a messy Divorce and battle for custody.
Christie Brinkley is 68 years old today and it seems like she’s aging backward.
