Christie Brinkley’s 3 Kids: All About Alexa, Jack and Sailor

Christie Brinkley has an enviable career, but she is most proud of being the mother of her three children.

Former Sports Illustrated the model welcomed her first child with ex-husband Billy Joel in 1985, daughter Alexa Ray Joel (37). Shortly after she and the “Piano Man” singer divorced in 1994, she gave birth to a son, Jack Paris Brinkley Cook, 28, with -husband, real estate developer Richard Taubman, though the couple split shortly after his birth. In 1996, Brinkley married architect Peter Cook, who adopted Jack before the couple welcomed their daughter, Sailor Brinkley-Cook, 25, a few years later in 1998. However, Brinkley and Cook finally divorced in 2008.

Brinkley’s children are now grown, and some of them have even followed in her footsteps, pursuing careers in the entertainment industry in some form or another. Through the years, National Lampoon’s Vacation the star enjoyed watching each of them pave their own path.

“You learn so much from each child, you just get a chance to see the world through their eyes. I have three real people,” she told Parade in May 2018. “They all find magic in different places, and I’m so happy to experience that.”

Brinkley has never been shy about posting photos of her family on her Instagram page, often sharing sweet birthday tributes, cute group photos, and more of her kids.

Read on to find out all about Christie Brinkley’s three children.

Alexa Ray Joel, 37

Alexa Ray Joel’s Instagram

Brinkley welcomed her oldest child, Alexa Ray Joel, on December 29, 1985, with her second husband, Billy Joel (Brinkley and Joel divorced in 1994 and had no more children).

Alexa inherited her father’s musical genes and is a successful singer and songwriter. She released several songs and even performed with her famous dad. In 2021, Alexa premiered a brand new song called “Seven Years”.

After releasing the song, Alexa spoke to PEOPLE about how proud her father is of her. “[Joel] she called me right away,” Alexa recalled of her dad’s reaction to the song. “He’s pretty quiet, but he said, ‘Honey, this is great!’ [and] I said, ‘Oh, you kind of sound more like my mother. So enthusiastic!'”

She also talked about how she was heavily influenced by her mom and dad, who both love Broadway and passed that on to her. I was an only child when I was young, she said. “Mom would dress me up like Liesl from The sound of music. My dad would play. And we’d just do that all day.”

Alexa also released a vintage-inspired music video for “Seven Years,” which was essentially a love song dedicated to her fiancé, Ryan Gleason. She told PEOPLE that when he first heard the song, he “started crying.” She added: “It chronicles the ups and downs of my relationship, with an overarching message of hope… and pangs of vulnerability and melancholy.”

Alexa and Gleason have been in a relationship for about eight years. They got engaged in 2018 on vacation. 2020, Brinkley said Extra that their wedding is “on hold” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bobby Bank/Getty

Brinkley’s oldest daughter has even dabbled in modeling, mostly doing family photos with her mom and her half-sister, Sailor. In 2017, the trio posed for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, and in 2021 they posed for NYDJ’s Mother’s Day campaign.

Despite her time in the limelight, Alexa has opened up about how she was shy growing up. “I was a painfully shy teenager,” she told PEOPLE in February 2017. “Before I decided to be a performer, I was a little shocked when the paparazzi were around. When you’re young, it’s easy to mess with you. There was a tabloid page that drew things on my face.”

Alexa also noticed how different she was from her mom. After describing her mom as a “classic, timeless, golden, all-American bombshell,” she described herself as “more ‘La Dolce Vita’-meets-mermaid-meets-vintage-bohemian.”

Jack Paris Brinkley-Cook, 28

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Brinkley’s second child, son Jack Paris Brinkley-Cook, was born on June 2, 1995, to Brinkley and her then-husband Richard Taubman (they married in 1994 and divorced in 1996 when Jack was a few months old). Jack was later adopted by Peter Cook, Brinkley’s fourth husband.

Although both of Brinkley’s daughters have decided to follow in their famous parents’ footsteps, Jack is much more private. He does not work in the entertainment industry and rarely posts on social media. He also usually doesn’t interfere in family filming or talk to the media. However, he did participate in the family spread of PEOPLE’s World’s Most Beautiful 2017 issue.

While he may not love being in front of the camera like his mom, Jack embodies his mom’s adventurous spirit. “I think the main thing I got from my mom was a sense of adventure,” Jack told PEOPLE. “The ocean is probably my favorite thing in the world. I surf, I sail, I swim. Whatever it is, everything that has to do with the ocean, I learned from her so I think that’s something I got from her because she loves the ocean too.”

Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan/Getty

But if his schooling is any indication, he may eventually have a future in Hollywood. He attended Emerson College to study marketing, but dropped out after a year to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute, graduating in 2016. W Magazine.

In 2019, he launched a ride-sharing app in the Hamptons called ROVE to help people get from NYC to the Hamptons. The app allows beachgoers to arrive in style in a 13-seat Mercedes Sprinter van at an affordable price.

As for his personal life, Jack started dating model Nina Agdal in 2017. The couple broke up in 2021 after dating for four years.

Christie Brinkley’s Instagram

In June 2023, Brinkley marked Jack’s 28th birthday by sharing an adorable photo on Instagram of the mother and son recreating an old photo from Jack’s childhood. “From there to here, in the blink of an eye, you became the most wonderful guy!” the proud mom wrote in the description.

Sailor Brinkley-Cook, 25

Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan/Getty

The youngest of the Brinkley children, Sailor Lee Brinkley-Cook, was born on July 2, 1998, to Brinkley and Cook. Sailor is the spitting image of her model mom, so much so that the two are often referred to as twins. In a 2017 interview with PEOPLE, Alexa described Sailor as “young, feisty, sassy, ​​spunky, the perfect little sports model.”

Sailor follows in her mother’s footsteps and builds a career as a model. She was photographed for publications such as Sports Illustrated and Vogue and she also worked as a model with her mom. In 2019, Sailor and her mom walked the runway together for the Elie Tahari show during New York Fashion Week. And in 2018, she posed naked Sports Illustrated for the “In Her Own Words” magazine campaign. She told PEOPLE that she felt comfortable being naked on camera because she was working with her friends, saying, “It’s like we’re in a dressing room or something.”

When Sailor first started modeling, she got tons of good advice from her supermodel mom. “Her biggest piece of advice when it comes to filming would be to be as kind as you can. I always try to introduce myself to everyone in the room. And I always try to give credit to everyone in the room,” Sailor recalled to PEOPLE in a February 2023 interview. “Because I think , my job is almost the easiest.”

She continued, “That’s what she taught me, is to really respect my environment while I’m in it and not be a diva and have fun with the creatives I work with.”

In 2019, Sailor joined the cast of the 28th season of the show Dancing with the stars stand in for mom after a freak accident during rehearsals that breaks her arm. Sailor told PEOPLE what she didn’t want to do at first DWTS, saying she was “terrified” to be “dancing on TV.” She added, “[My mom] he told me to have fun with it and not let fear stop me from doing any of it.” Sailor was eliminated during the sixth week of the competition.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

After Brinkley’s injury was announced, talk show host Wendy Williams said she thought the injury “looked fake as hell” and theorized that the supermodel did it to get her daughter on the show. Sailor was quick to defend her mom, saying Party tonight that the comment is “so crazy to me”. She added: “I can’t even find the comments because it’s so real to me, the emotions are still so raw.”

Sailor has also been open about issues with her body image. In a May 2020 Instagram post, Sailor was candid about how she felt about herself, writing, “I’ve been so down lately. Crying about my cellulite, letting my body fat ruin my day, resenting it. I’m not as skinny as which I used to be. Body dysmorphia and eating disorder tendencies are more and more present.” She went on to say that she compared herself to other girls on Instagram, adding: “I’m so tired of thinking that anything that makes ME is something to be ashamed of.”

She spoke about similar body image issues during an interview with Good morning America later that month. “I just have this horrible feeling that if I’m not thin, I’m not worth celebrating and praising,” she said. She added that her mom “didn’t fully know the pain” she was going through.

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Source: HIS Education