Christie Brinkley recalls ‘painful’ situation that ended tumultuous Billy Joel marriage

For nearly a decade, Christie Brinkley was one half of one of the entertainment industry’s most enviable marriages, to singer and ’80s heartthrob Billy Joel.

The supermodel, 71, and the singer, 75, started dating in 1983, after they first met on St Barts, and tied the knot in 1985. They welcomed a daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, in December 1985.

However, by 1994, their intense romance had soured and they called it quits on their marriage, with their divorce finalized by August of that year. While both have since moved on, they remain close friends and doting co-parents.

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Christie and Billy’s early tension

On April 29, Christie is releasing her debut memoir, titled after her ex’s song that made her a household name, “Uptown Girl,” and spoke with People about the ups and downs of their relationship.

“He definitely didn’t look like a rock star,” she initially recalled of the singer, who she first saw sitting on a piano, going into even further detail in her book about all the parts of him she found unattractive.

“The man was sunburned to a crisp, his face the same color as cranberries and unctuous with oil, which he’d undoubtedly slathered on to soothe the burn, topped by what I like to call ‘the Long Island bubble’: a carapace of curly shellacked hair popular in the 1980s in parts of suburban New York,” she penned in an extract of the book shared by the publication.

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How they fell in love

But that all changed once she discovered his sense of humor. “We laughed like you couldn’t believe,” Christie shared. “We called each other Bada Bing and Bada Boom. Because we were really like teenagers falling in love. We were suddenly fumbling and stuttering and dropping things.”

“But also he was so sensitive and he did all the old-fashioned things, the flowers, the notes and the poems and the songs,” she noted, particularly citing how tender he was as a musician. 

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“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.”

The breakdown of their marriage

Things changed, however, when they got married and became parents, as both their careers pulled them in different directions and added stress that manifested in the form of Billy’s alcohol abuse, per Christie.

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“To be clear, I never wanted to end things with Billy,” she wrote in her memoir. “But his drinking was bigger than the both of us,” telling People: “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.”

However, the couple have since moved on, with Christie even calling several of her husbands after Billy “doozies,” and they’re now great friends. “He lives mainly in Florida so we don’t see him as much as when he lived in Sag Harbor, but when he comes by to see Alexa, he’ll come in and say hello.” Take a look at Christie’s own home in the video below…

Will he read Uptown Girl? “Alexa described it to him, and he’s like, ‘Sounds good, no problem.'”