Christy Brinkley is a $100 million net worth American model, entrepreneur, and actor. Christie rose to worldwide prominence as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in the 1970s. She went on to become one of the world’s most successful and highest-paid models. She rose to prominence in the 1970s as a result of her appearances in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues, and she was the face of CoverGirl for 25 years. With a career spanning three decades, Brinkley has appeared on over 500 magazine covers and collaborated with a slew of major brands.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Christie Brinkley was born Christie Lee Hudson in Monroe, Michigan in 1954. Her family later relocated to Los Angeles, where her mother Marjorie met and married television writer and producer Donald Brinkley. The family resided in Malibu for a time before moving to Brentwood. Brinkley attended Paul Revere Junior High and Le Lycée Francois of Los Angeles from 9th to 12th grade. She relocated to Paris to study painting after graduating in 1972.
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Brinkley was spotted by American photographer Errol Sawyer at a post office in Paris in 1973. Sawyer recommended Brinkley to Elite Model Management after she took her first modeling photos, where she met famous fashion photographers such as Mike Reinhardt and Patrick Demarchelier. Brinkley had already been booked for three national ad campaigns when she returned to California.
Career Heights
Soon after, Brinkley was on the cover of Glamour many times and secured a record 25-year contract with CoverGirl. She was the first woman to appear on three consecutive covers of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from 1979 to 1981.
Brinkley continued to appear in successive editions and on TV specials for many years after that. Vogue, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone, and US are among the hundreds of other magazines covers she has graced. Meanwhile, she has worked with Max Factor, Nissan, Revlon, Prell, Diet Coke, and Chanel No. 19. Brinkley has been photographed in more than 30 countries on six continents.
Film, TV, and Theater
Brinkley has appeared in films, on stage, and on television in addition to modeling. Her first part was as the legendary, unidentified girl in the red Ferrari in 1983’s “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” Brinkley played her iconic small part many times, including in 1997’s “Vegas Vacation,” ads for DirecTV and Infiniti, and a 2019 episode of ABC’s “The Goldbergs.” Meanwhile, she has a recurring part on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and a guest appearance on “Mad About You.”
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Brinkley made her theatrical debut in 2011 in the role of Roxie Hart in the musical “Chicago.” She appeared in the show for a month at London’s Cambridge Theatre before moving on to Broadway.
Personal Life
Brinkley has a lengthy and illustrious romantic history, including four marriages as of 2021. She married French artist Jean-François Allaux in 1973, but the couple separated in 1981. Following that, in 1985, she married musician Billy Joel, with whom she had one child, a singer called Alexa Ray Joel.
In 1994, the couple divorced. Later that year, in Telluride, Colorado, Brinkley married real estate entrepreneur Richard Taubman, near the scene of their recent helicopter disaster. They divorced in 1995 after having one son. Brinkley married architect Peter Halsey Cook the following year. They divorced in 2008, with one child, a daughter.
Real Estate
Surprisingly, Christie’s net wealth is not derived mostly from her modeling profession. Over the years, Brinkley has made a number of really good real estate investments. She has mostly invested in real estate in The Hamptons, New York’s ultra-exclusive coastal community. Her real estate portfolio is easily worth $60 million or more. Christie, for example, paid $2.7 million buying a 21-acre Hamptons estate across many transactions in the mid-1990s. She advertised this home for $30 million in 2007, and it eventually sold for $17 million.
Tower Hill, her present home, is a 20-acre estate that dates back to 1891. A gated enclosure with three distinct parcels and a 50-foot-tall observation tower.
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