Stepping in! Christie Brinkley was forced to drop out of Dancing With the Stars season 28 at the last minute — but her daughter Sailor Brinkley-Cook is taking her place.
“While rehearsing for the premiere of Dancing With the Stars, Christie Brinkley suffered injuries which required surgery to her wrist and arm. She is unable to continue her planned participation on the show,” ABC said in a statement to Us Weekly on Monday, September 16. “Keeping it all in the family, her daughter Sailor Brinkley-Cook, a Sports Illustrated model, has chosen to quickly step in with hours to learn the entire routine and will compete in her mother’s place for the remainder of the season.”
The statement continued, “We wish Christie a full and speedy recovery and look forward to seeing her in the audience, whenever possible, proudly supporting Sailor.”
Brinkley, 65, shares Sailor, 21, with her ex-husband, Peter Cook, to whom she was married from 1996 to 2008. She is also the mother of son Jack Brinkley-Cook, 24, with Richard Taubman, and daughter Alexa Ray Joel, 33, with Billy Joel.
“Showbiz is all about getting a break, and Sailor and I both got one on Dancing With the Stars this season. Sailor joined the cast when I got mine,” the legendary model said in a statement to Good Morning America on Monday, joking about her injuries. “Ouch, somebody stop me, it hurts to laugh!”
Sailor, meanwhile, told GMA, “I’m doing this mostly for my mom! I just want to make her happy and make her proud. She loved doing this, she loves dancing and she loves performing and getting hurt was her worst nightmare. … I felt this high of just attacking something I was so afraid of and it felt like something I need to do. I think it will change me.”
Fortunately, Sailor likely did not have to move around her schedule too much. Before exiting the show, Brinkley told Us that her three children were “rescheduling their lives so that they can try to be there on the first dance.” The former CoverGirl added that her ex-husband Joel, 70, thought her DWTS stint was “a really fun, great thing to be doing.”
Dancing With the Stars premieres on ABC Monday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
