Christie Brinkley recalls breakup `nightmare'

"Anyone who would run the risk of destroying this wonderful life, anybody that would chase a teenager--I mean, a young girl--where is his judgment?" she said.

The former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and architect Peter Cook are arguing over custody of their two children and other issues in a divorce trial that has produced a series of salacious revelations. Brinkley's trip to the witness stand Monday was not as explosive as some of last week's testimony, but it did contain some juicy details.

Brinkley portrayed Cook as inflexible about the children, saying he once refused to change his visitation schedule to let their son, now 13, attend a Billy Joel concert last year at the boy's private East Hampton school. Joel and Brinkley were married in the 1980s and had a daughter together.

But before Cook's affair burst into the tabloids and sank their marriage, Brinkley described him to an interviewer as "just the greatest father."

Cook's lawyer, Norman Sheresky, asked whether she'd meant it.

"Partially," Brinkley said, explaining that her admiration waned in the latter years of their marriage.

Brinkley emphasized her own hands-on parenting in her testimony Monday. She had a range of household helpers, at times including a nanny, a cook, a groundskeeper and a laundress (because Cook insisted on having his underwear ironed, she said). But Brinkley said she "put in a very full, busy day in an active, wonderful life."

Her lawyers even introduced some physical evidence: an elaborate dinosaur diorama--complete with a volcano and flying raptors--she said she had helped her son make for a science class.

Last week, Brinkley testified that her world "was completely shattered" by news of the affair. "My life as I knew it had vanished," she said.