Brinkley & Cook Settle: He Gets $2.1M, She Gets 18 Properties

July 10, 2008 — -- Former supermodel Christie Brinkley agreed today to pay her randy husband Peter Cook more than $2 million to bring an end to their nasty and embarrassing divorce battle.

The $2.1 milliion payment to Cook, a high-powered architect, was part of a deal hammered out in all-night negotiations and announced shortly after dawn today.

The couple and their lawyers spent hours during the night in separate conference rooms at a Marriot hotel on Long Island. Early this morning, at 6:15 a.m., the battling couple finally struck a deal, according to Brinkley's lawyer Robert Stephan Cohen.

A source close to Brinkley, who arrived at court today in in a pretty pink cardigan and gray-and-pink-striped shirt, told ABC News the deal is "good for Christie."

In addition to getting full custody of their two children, Brinkley will keep the couple's 18 properties scattered through Long Island's posh vacation region called the Hamptons as well as the Turks and Caicos.

Brinkley, holding her son Jack's dinosaur diorama, which was presented as evidence at trial, said outside court today that she fought so hard against Cook because "a mother's greatest fear is someone taking away her children."

She added that she regrets the trial going on for so long, but doesn't regret marrying Cook because "I have this beautiful daughter as a result of this union."

Asked when she plans to date again, Brinkley laughed and said she wasn't sure whether she was ready.

As for her peace-sign earrings: "I believe we need to work towards peace in everything we do, so I wear a lot of peace signs."

The settlement will bring to an end the circuslike divorce trial that has regaled the tabloids with tales of Cook's affairs, his love of porn, his masturbating on the Internet and his narcissistic needs.

Brinkley didn't escape embarrassment with a court appointed shrink saying the four-times married informercial queen also needed therapy for her choice of men and her simmering rage over Cook's flings.

Brinkley, 54, and Cook, 49, determinedly avoided each other during the trial, but talked briefly during the negotiations. "They don't communicate well," according to People magazine. And yesterday afternoon, Brinkley briefly called Cook on his cell phone, said sources close to the couple.

Lawyers from both sides did not return calls from ABC News.

An earlier effort to reach a settlement on Wednesday broke down over Cook's insistence that he get another day of visitation in the custody phase of their trial, sources told ABC News.

In the midafternoon, the trial resumed with lackluster testimony from the couple's children's piano teacher and the head of the Ross School, the exclusive private school the children attend.

Though intended to bolster Brinkley's argument in the custody phase of the trial, they ended up praising both parents for their parenting skills.

Music teacher Christine Glennon testified that Brinkley used to encourage her daughter Sailor to play and sometimes record her performances, adding that Cook also never missed piano recitals and once brought his own parents to a recital.

Michele Claeys, the head of the Ross School, testified that both Sailor and son Jack seemed very happy and excelled academically and socially, attributing some of that success to the school and the parenting of Brinkley and Cook.

Although Brinkley's lawyers made much of the fact that Cook did not attend the school's annual fundraiser last year, Claeys said that Cook was an attentive parent who attended parent-teacher conferences and the school's Potato Festival.

On the way out of the courtroom Wednesday, both sides remained mum about any possible settlement discussions.

At one point, one of Brinkley's lawyers mentioned to a colleague that he was disappointed in Claeys' testimony, saying, "That didn't work out so well."