NEW YORK — Explosive details of Peter Cook's affair with his then 18-year-old assistant kicked off Wednesday's opening day of the architect's divorce trial with Christie Brinkley.
According to the New York Post, the 49-year-old Cook testified that he hired his teenage lover, Diana Bianchi, in March 2005 after meeting her at a toy store earlier in the year. Bianchi was paid $20,000 to type magazine articles onto his company's Web site and their affair began soon after she was hired. Cook also admitted to leaving her occasional cash payments, including one time when he left her $500 underneath a rock.
Cook and Bianchi had sex in the office and at homes owned by Brinkley before the affair ended later the same year.
"In his office he asked me how I would feel if he told me that he was attracted to me and that's really how it all started," Bianchi said under oath, according to the Post.
"I think I was a little taken aback, but I wasn't against it either really," she added. "I wouldn't say that one of us pushed the other. I would say that it was a mutual thing."
Cook told the court that he paid Bianchi $300,000 in May 2007, with the intention of keeping the affair quiet. The payment came after the affair had already ended.
At one point during his testimony, Cook read an e-mail that he had sent to Bianchi.
"I don't know, you put me under your spell," he said, according to the Post. "You never asked me, but I left you money anyway."
Brinkley eventually found out about the affair from Bianchi's stepfather, Brian Platt.
Details of Cook's interest in Internet porn were also revealed on the opening day, a habit that amounted to $3,000 a month. During his testimony, Cook broke down when asked by his own attorney, Mark Winkler, if he had ever masturbated in front of a Web cam.
"Yes, I have, privately, secretly — never at home, never in front of my children," he said, according to the Post.
Cook then admitted that he sought out "young fit girls" from swinger Web sites, the Post says.
One of Cook's lawyers, Norman Sheresky, blamed Brinkley for creating the circus surrounding the divorce case.
"Peter has apologized," he told the court. "He's cried his eyes out. He's lost his marriage."
"For goodness sake: She's on her fourth husband," he added. "Your honor, we're here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a woman scorned ... That's putting her agenda in front of the best interests of the children. What kind of a mother wants her husband flogged in public?"
Brinkley is expected to take the stand when the trial continues Thursday.
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