Iconic supermodel Christie Brinkley is opening up about her humble beginnings and the unexpected moment that launched her modeling career—not in California, but in Paris.

In a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Christie Brinkley, now 71, revealed the charming and fateful story of how she was discovered while living as a struggling artist in the City of Light.

“My Paris apartment didn’t have a telephone, a bathtub, or a shower,” she recalled. “I used to go to the public baths and make phone calls at the telephoning office down the street.”

That very office, she explained, became the unlikely backdrop to her modeling break. A neighborhood photographer had seen Brinkley there multiple times and remembered her face when he landed a job seeking a fresh-faced California girl.

“He thought, ‘That girl from the telephoning office!’” Brinkley said with a smile.

One day, while walking her puppy and distracted by her surroundings, Christie Brinkley ran into the photographer at the phone office—a literal collision that changed the course of her life.

“That moment started it all,” she said, describing it as the spark that led to her legendary supermodel career.

While it might seem like luck, Brinkley believes fate had a hand in it. She explores this theme in her new memoir, Uptown Girl, which reflects on the serendipitous and sometimes painful experiences that shaped her life.

“Even if something is heartbreaking or devastating, it can still lead you to places you never imagined,” she said.

Brinkley’s story is a reminder that success can come from the most unexpected places—and that sometimes, fate finds you when you’re just making a phone call.