According to a new report, everything isn't as it seems with Peter Cook's new engagement.
Christie Brinkley's ex-husband, 60, announced at the end of October that he was engaged to a 21-year-old college student named Alba Jancou, and the news made headlines around the world, mostly for what he claimed to be a nearly 40-year age gap between them.
But Page Six, who broke the initial news of the engagement, reported this week that Cook is actually lying about his fiancée's age. Citing sources close to the unlikely couple, the outlet claims that Jancou is actually just 20 years old and doesn't turn 21 until March.
"A few weeks ago, Cook swore to Page Six through his rep that the bride-to-be was 21, despite our doubts," Page Six's Emily Smith wrote. "He even went as far as to claim a social media post of her 18th birthday celebrations at her elite British high school, posted on Twitter in 2017, carried the wrong date. The post has since been deleted."
Insiders speculate to the outlet that the likely reasoning for his ruse is the fact that his daughter and ex-wife Christie, Sailor Brinkley-Cook, at 21, is actually older than his new bride-to-be. The former "Dancing With the Stars" contestant reportedly "isn’t exactly overjoyed" about her father's engagement, the announcement of which came one week after her elimination from the ABC competition show -- despite the fact the he reportedly popped the question in Greece over a month beforehand.
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"Sailor had no idea Peter was going to announce his engagement with such celebrity fanfare," a source told Page Six. "It took her by surprise. She was really upset."
When Cook confirmed his engagement on October 28, he called his young fiancée, who he had first been connected to after being spotted together at various events in the Hamptons over the summer, his "soulmate."
"We consider ourselves incredibly lucky to have found, in each other, our soulmate," he said at the time. "We are looking forward to many years of wedded bliss."
Peter Cook was previously married to Christie Brinkley from 1996 until 2008. They divorced after the supermodel found out that Cook was having an affair with his reportedly 19-year-old assistant.