Brinkley 'should get custody of children'

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-10  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A court-appointed psychiatrist sized up Christie Brinkley's ill-fated fourth marriage, saying the American model needs to examine her taste in men and her cheating husband is a narcissist with a bottomless ego.

But between them, Brinkley should get custody of their two children, Doctor Stephen Herman said at their divorce trial.

Herman's testimony added a dispassionate, but intimate viewpoint to a case piled high with dirty laundry. Brinkley's estranged husband, architect Peter Cook, has admitted having an affair with a teenager who worked in his office and spending thousands of dollars on Internet pornography.

Herman had harsh words for Cook in a report for the court, saying the architect had an insatiable ego and "needs constant reassurance that he is a terrific guy."

But Brinkley "needs to start working on deeper issues" - including "her choice of male figures," Herman said under questioning by the children's attorney, Theresa Mari. He said the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model needs therapy as "an outlet for her anger and feeling of betrayal" by her unfaithful husband. Herman called for therapy for Cook, too.

Brinkley was cool to the idea.

"I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of psychotherapy," she testified later. "I believe there are other ways to deal with this." But she added that she "would do whatever it takes to convince the court" to grant her custody of the children, 10 and 13.

The psychiatrist, who met with the family 11 times, said that shared custody "is not at all a viable option."

But he later agreed that both Brinkley and Cook had been "superb" parents. And he said Cook should be involved in his children's lives - caring for them if their mother is away on business, for instance.