Christie Brinkley Reacts to Daughter Sailor’s Elimination on ‘DWTS’: ‘Thank You for Your Work That Brought Us Beauty and Joy’

Heartbroken. Christie Brinkley opened up about her daughter Sailor Brinkley-Cook‘s devastating elimination on Dancing With the Stars a few days after the beloved mini-me was booted off season 28 on Monday, October 21. The iconic supermodel took to Instagram to express her thoughts on her little girl’s incredible journey.

“Dear Sailor and Val, thank you for your work that brought us beauty and joy!” the 65-year-old beauty wrote on Instagram on Wednesday, October 23. “May you both always have a song in your heart that keeps you dancing with wild abandon through a grateful life of exhilarating joy! You don’t need to be on a TV show to keep smiling and dancing … and that’s the ultimate prize!”

As fans of the National Lampoon’s Vacation actress know, Christie was originally cast in the latest season of the reality TV dancing competition. She unfortunately broke her arm and shoulder during an accident in rehearsals and sadly had to withdraw from the show. Luckily, the proud mom announced her daughter would take her place just hours before the new season premiered in mid-September.

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Along with her encouraging message, Christie shared “a few random happy snippets of videos” of her 21-year-old daughter that she shot from her DWTS rehearsals. In the clips, Sailor and Val, 33, can be seen practicing their incredible dance moves while beaming with joy the entire time.

Following the end of her run, Sailor took to social media to gush about the life-changing experience. “Last night was heartbreaking. I was so not ready for this experience to finish so soon, but wow am I grateful for every minute of it,” she emotionally wrote in a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday. “I loved every sweaty moment in the rehearsal studio pushing myself past so many inhibitions and insecurities, and laughing my way through it all with my buddies @michdibs and @valentin.”

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Wanted to share some videos from rehearsals. All shot by my queen and the third in our team @michdibs 💛 First video is the first rehearsal we had for uptown girl, 3 hours after i got off the plane. I was terrified and had no idea if i could do it. Every video after were rehearsals filled with pure joy, laughter, and gratitude to be able to express ourselves through dance. I loved going to the studio every day and learning something new. Thank you for believing in me from day 1 @valentin 😊

A post shared by Sailor (@sailorbrinkleycook) on Oct 23, 2019 at 11:58am PDT

She also reflected on bravely overcoming her fear of stage fight. “And then doing something every Monday that I never in a million years thought I could be capable of,” she sweetly continued. “It was such a gift, no matter how nervous I was getting up on that stage, I’d always look around and think, ‘What is my life!? How blessed am I?!’ This experience changed my whole outlook on life.”

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Even though fans — and especially Christie — will miss watching the blonde beauty bust a move every Monday night, Sailor feels blessed to have been apart of the awesome journey. “All my life I let my fears hold me back from anything I wasn’t comfortable with,” she admitted. “This experience made me feel unstoppable. Each day on this rollercoaster ride was a massive learning lesson, a journey in 24 hours.”

Christie couldn’t be a more supportive mama even if she tried!