‘Dancing With the Stars’: Christie Brinkley Breaks Silence on Daughter Sailor’s Elimination

Christie Brinkley is celebrating her daughter Sailor Brinkley-Cook after her surprise elimination this week on Dancing With the Stars. The model, who was originally set to perform on the cast, but was replaced with her daughter after an injury ahead of the Season 28 premiere, took to Instagram Wednesday to share kind words for Sailor and her dance partner Val Chmerkovskiy. The pair was surprisingly eliminated during Monday’s episode after fan voting led them, as well as frontrunner Ally Brooke and her partner Sasha Farber, in the bottom two.

Christie shared a series of photos of her daughter’s different looks throughout the weeks of competition, along with a lengthy message commending her for stepping in for her after her injury.

“Dear Sailor and Val, Thank you for your work that brought us beauty and joy!” The model wrote on the caption of her post. “May you both always have a song in your heart that keeps you dancing with wild abandon thru a grateful life of exhilarating joy!”

“You don’t need to be on a tv show to keep smiling and dancing…” she added, “and that’s the ultimate prize! Here are a few random happy snippets of videos I shot from your rehearsals guaranteed to put a smile on everyone’s face!”

The shocking results of Monday’s left Sailor in tears. The model cried on Chmerkovskiy’s arms as the final moments of the live broadcast aired. Brinkley-Cook spoke out on the elimination during an emotional interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.

“I loved this experience so much. I loved going to the studio and being able to do something I never thought I could do.” She said. “I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported me because I know I’m not a big star, but I was so happy to have done something that I was so afraid of.”

Chmerkovskiy commented on the results at the time, saying, “We’re very proud that Sailor was able to step up to the plate and create a silver lining to a terrible situation and again, Season 28 has been a crazy rollercoaster.”

Brooke was one of the many celebrities participating this season who were also shocked by the results of the latest episode.

“It was completely shocking … I just can’t believe that Sailor was in the bottom two. And then she got eliminated? Like, it was completely and utterly shocking,”she told Entertainment Tonight. “I love that girl, she was one of my closest friends on this show, so I’m just shocked. I’m sure she’s completely sad, and I know she’s probably just taking her time to process this.”

“I just can’t imagine how she’s feeling right now. We’re going to go give her a hug afterwards. We love her,” she also said. “At the same time, of course, I’m so thankful that we get to dance another week, because this competition means the world to me.”

Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.