Following in Our Mother's Footsteps

Bring on the bikinis! After dealing with vicious bullying, the supermodel’s daughters are embracing their bodies in a sexy new photo shoot for Sports Illustrated

- Charlotte Triggs

She’s an icon who has graced more than 500 magazine covers in a career spanning four decades, but when Christie Brinkley was asked to pose for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue again—this time with her daughters Alexa and Sailor—she wasn’t exactly raring to go. “My first thought was, ‘At my age? No way!’ When I turned 30, I was like, ‘This is the last time I’m posing in a bathing suit!’ ” she says. “I’m 63. Those days are over! But to get to do it with my girls, I thought, ‘One last go!’ ”

This shoot turned out to be a particularly meaningful moment for Alexa Ray Joel, 31, Brinkley’s daughter with ex-husband Billy Joel, and Sailor Brinkley Cook, 18, whose dad is ex-husband Peter Cook. “I grew up looking at these photos of my mom, never thinking I’d ever be able to do that,” confesses Sailor, who went through a self-described “awkward” phase before venturing into modeling herself at 14 and has been outspoken about social media bullies who criticized her weight and appearance. “This was . . . not validation, but it felt very empowering and liberating,” she adds. At 5'3", Alexa says she never intended to model and often dealt with cruel comments about her looks as a teen. When offered the chance to pose for the issue, on stands Feb. 15, the singer-songwriter “needed to be talked into it,” she admits. “But before you know it, I felt like, ‘Damn, I’m getting good at this modeling stuff!’

Were you excited to pose together for this issue?

SAILOR It was such a surreal moment for me. I’ve looked up to the SI models and my mom as my inspirations.