Christie Brinkley's hubby paid $300k to silence teenage lover

Washington, June 25 : Supermodel Christie Brinkley's estranged husband Peter Cook paid his former teenage mistress 300,000 dollars to keep quiet about their affair.

The 49-year-old architect paid Diana Bianchi in exchange for a promise that Bianchi, who was 18 when she began working at Cook's firm, would not sue him for sexual harassment.

"What Cook did is prey on an 18-year-old girl. It's a textbook case of why an employer is not supposed to carry on a relationship with an employee," People quoted Bianchi's lawyer Joseph Tacopina, as saying.

Last March, Cook's lawyers negotiated a secret deal in which he paid Bianchi 300,000 dollars to keep the details of their relationship private - and out of a courtroom.

A source close to Cook said: "Peter settled because he wanted to his children left out of it. That's the difference between them - he wants the children left out of it and [Brinkley] wants the kids in it."

ANI