Christie Brinkley Won’t ‘Settle’ for Man Who Doesn’t Check ‘All’ the ‘Boxes’: ‘She’s Got High Standards’

Christie Brinkley has been single for a while now, but she’s deliberately taken her time before jumping into another romance – even though eligible guys are virtually lining down the block looking to take her out on dates, according to an insider!

“Christie really doesn’t feel her age, nor does she look it,” the insider exclusively tells In Touch. “So, there isn’t this great ticking clock hanging over her when it comes to her love life. Her view is that she’ll find it when she’s meant to.”

“She is extremely happy with her life the way it is so there’s no big pressure to find a partner,” the insider continues. “She’s very well off and not just financially, her whole life is rich. She has friends, she has her work, her kids, she has a great social life. And she enjoys her own company.”

Christie, 71, has also had a lifetime to figure out what she doesn’t want from a relationship following her past four marriages. The Sports Illustrated cover model first tied the knot with François Allaux, and they were married 1973 to 1981. Next, she was married to Billy Joel from 1985 to 1994, Richard Taubman from 1994 to 1995 and Peter Cook from 1996 to 2008.

Until a new man “checks all of the boxes” for her and proves “he will be an asset” in her life, Christie isn’t interested in settling, adds the insider. For the time being, she is open to the idea of meeting someone special, but she’s “not the least bit desperate.”

“She’s got high standards and she’s very discerning,” says the insider. “She was naïve when she was younger, but now she’s had enough life experience to know what she’s looking for and she trusts her intuition. She trusts the process too, she’s not in any rush.”

As In Touch previously reported, Christie’s fourth marriage ended in heartbreak when she discovered Peter’s affair with his then-19-year-old assistant, Diana Bianchi. She later called it the “most tortured relationship” she’s ever had.

However, she managed to remain friends with her second husband after their split. In her memoir, Uptown Girl, which hit shelves on April 29, Christie reminisced about the early days of her relationship with the “Piano Man” singer.

“We laughed like you couldn’t believe,” she said in an excerpt of the tell-all book. “But also, he was so sensitive, and he did all the old-fashioned things, the flowers, the notes and the poems and the songs. He was going into the recording studio, and he was writing all these songs and saying, ‘This one’s for you.’ How could I not fall in love with him? … When I heard him sing on stage, I found myself undeniably attached to this physically hot and charismatic man.”

She admitted that while she never wanted to end her relationship with Billy, “his drinking was bigger than the both of us.”

“In the end, when the relationship isn’t functioning the way you want it to be anymore — that’s the worst kind of loneliness because you just can’t make it work together and that’s painful,” she added at the time.