Sailor Brinkley-Cook Reacts to Wendy Williams' Claims That Mom Christie Faked 'DWTS' Injury (Exclusive)
Sailor Brinkley-Cook isn't letting the haters ruin her experience on Dancing With the Stars!
ET exclusively stopped by the model's rehearsal with her pro partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, in Los Angeles on Thursday, where she reacted to Wendy Williams' claims about her mother, Christie Brinkley, "faking" her injury.
"It's so insane to me," Sailor said. "I can't even find comments because it's so real to me, the emotions are still so new."
"Getting that call from my mom [about her injury] ... she was sobbing, crying," Sailor continued. "She was so disappointed because she couldn't do it anymore. She wasn't even crying because she was hurt, she was like, 'I let everyone down. I won't be able to keep going on Dancing With the Stars.'"
Sailor said she played a part in comforting her mom, and luckily, they came up with a solution.
"The next day she calls me and she's like, 'I found the silver lining and you're it!'" she recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh my god.' It was all just so quick I couldn't overthink it."
The morning of last week's DWTS premiere, fans were shocked to learn that Christie would no longer be competing after suffering injuries to her wrist and arm. ABC and Christie announced that Sailor would be stepping in to take her place in the ballroom the rest of the season... but Wendy wasn't buying it.
During The Wendy Williams Show, the talk show host played a clip from ABC of the moment when Christie fell in rehearsal, saying, "Well, that looked fake as hell!" She also alleged that it was Christie's plan all along to get her daughter onto the show.
Wendy apologized on Tuesday's episode of her show, but stood by her claims. "I'm sorry, girl. You know I love you, Christie," she said. "I see you with your cast. I'm not gonna double down on what I said, but what I will do is apologize if I hurt your feelings. But my opinion still stands."
Regardless of Wendy's opinions, Sailor is staying focused in rehearsals in hopes of winning the mirrorball for her mom.
"She's so excited about me doing it," Sailor told ET. "I ran out of workout clothes, so I'm going up to her room, wearing her clothes. Literally, it's exactly like I'm doing it for her, wearing what she would wear. It's hilarious, but she's so proud of me, honestly, because she knows how scary this was for me."
"There was definitely hesitation," she added, about agreeing to take her mom's place in the competition. "I was so nervous about it because I'm not a performer. I've never done anything like this. I was terrified, but the reason why I did it was mostly for my mom."
ET also caught up Sailor (and Christie!) following Monday's DWTS premiere, where they got emotional talking about premiere night.
"I can't even feel this right now, I'm so excited by what just took place," Christie said, raving over Sailor and Val's first dance. "I'm so lucky."
Hear more in the video below.
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