Peter Cook Talks Christie Brinkley Split

Architect Peter Cook is hoping to set the record straight about his split with supermodel Christie Brinkley.

Cook, who engaged in a very public divorce and child custody battle with Brinkley over the summer — before the couple settled, sat down for a new interview with “20/20” host Barbara Walters in an attempt to clear the air.

“My hope is that the world will see that I’m not the scumbag pervert that I’ve been painted to be,” Cook tells Walters in an interview scheduled to air Friday, October 10. “The misinformation that came out during the trial is the elephant in the room. It’s the elephant in the room for my kids. And I’m hoping maybe if I can correct some of the wrongs.”

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Cook and Brinkley split after 10 years of marriage in 2006, after he reportedly engaged in an extramarital affair with an 18-year-old assistant, a subject he addressed during Walters’ interview.

“I was seeking a connection I could not find in my own marriage,” Cook says. “I think the emotional aspect of our lives had changed. I think we were both feeling more like we were living with a brother and sister than a life partner… I think I just suddenly realized, when I was getting attention from someone else, that this is something that is missing in my life.”

Cook, who during the divorced faced allegations he was addicted to Internet porn during the marriage, explains that one reason he engaged in the affair was because he was seeking recognition and attention, which he claims he was not receiving at home.

“I wanted a little acknowledgement, a little attention, a little thank you every now and then for my efforts, for the amount of time I took to care [of] her and my family, for the wealth I was building. Just the tremendous amount of work I was putting into my family,” Cook says. “My world became her world. It had to be that way… there came a time when I pulled up the driveway to the home that I found, that I built, that I lived in, and I felt like I was a guest in someone else’s life.”

The architect said he hopes if Brinkley watches the interview, that she gets something positive out of it

“What I hope comes of it is that she takes the time to heal herself. And she goes back and remembers that I made a mistake, but that I am that person that she wrote the poems about, that she raved about in magazine articles and anybody who she could get… twist their ear to listen,” he says. “I am that person today that I was then.”