Christie Brinkley details the highs and lows of her most famous past marriage — to Billy Joel — in her newly released memoir Uptown Girl.
“I like to say I had two great marriages [Joel and Jean-François Allaux] and two duds [Richard Taubman and Peter Cook],” Brinkley, 71, quipped to Us Weekly exclusively while promoting the book, which was released on Tuesday, April 29. “I would probably have to say [Joel] was the love of my life because he was the first person I had my baby with too. That’s a very, very special thing.”
The supermodel and the iconic musician were married for nine years from 1985 to 1994. They share daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, who was born in December 1985. Despite their divorce, the two have remained friends.
“The whole thing was incredible,” Brinkley told Us about her glamorous NYC wedding to Joel, which is showcased in Uptown Girl. “We had decided to get married on a ship in New York Harbor. … All the rooftops had paparazzi all over, helicopters buzzing. … [There was] electricity in the air from it all.”
Keep scrolling to read Brinkley’s most honest quotes about Joel from her new memoir:
How They Met
Brinkley wrote that her relationship with Joel “changed my life irrevocably” before detailing the first time they met in January 1983 during a trip to St. Barts.
“Immediately, I found Billy charming and hilarious as he cracked jokes about his ‘tan’ and made other self-deprecating remarks that were both amusing and endearing,” Brinkley wrote. “When he first introduced himself, offering his hand to make my acquaintance, I gave him a funny sideways glance — I wasn’t sure if his name was Billy Joe or Billy Joel, and not wanting to insult him, I decided to play it safe.”
Billy Joel and Ex-Wife Christie Brinkley’s Relationship Timeline
Initially, Brinkley only wanted to be friends with Joel “forever.” They officially started dating in April 1983.
A Slew of ‘Spectacular’ Dates
Joel took Brinkley to see Little Shop of Horrors Off Broadway in NYC for their first date. The second was at a Beach Boys concert.
“As soon as Billy and I started to date, flowers began to arrive daily at my apartment, and if he ever missed a day, I’d get two arrangements the following day,” she recalled. “Not only flowers and cards, Billy also gave me cakes and funny little songs, not all of which he sang.”
Elsewhere in the book, Brinkley revealed that Joel bought her a horse named Belle Star for the Christmas after they got engaged in August 1984.
The ‘Uptown Girl’ Video
The then-couple filmed the legendary “Uptown Girl” music video six months into their relationship — and no, the song wasn’t actually about Brinkley.
Unlike what many people think, Billy didn’t write the hit about me — at least, not initially,” she wrote, noting that the tune was more of a “fantasy” at first.
“The whole thing was so much fun,” Brinkley told Us exclusively, recalling that they filmed on “the hottest night of the whole summer.”
A Fracture in Their Relationship
Brinkley wrote about one night in 1986 when she woke up alone in their bed in their Montauk, NY home and Joel wasn’t anywhere to be found. She called “every local bar” until finding the one Joel was at.
“He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t hurt. And he hadn’t even left Montauk for God knew where,” she wrote. “He was just drunk. And I felt abandoned, which is a horrible feeling.”
They had a major fight when he got home. And the same thing started to happen more than once.
A Major Betrayal
“Frank’s betrayal changed Billy in indelible ways,” Brinkley wrote. “He became dark, withdrawn, and stressed as he tried to pump out more hits to recoup his financial losses while drinking more — a lot more.”
She was referring to Frank Weber, Joel’s manager who “allegedly siphoned more than $30 million” from the singer over the years. (Joel sued Weber in 1989, winning $2 million in a partial judgement the following year. It was eventually settled in 1993.)
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After the incident, Brinkley recalled “some jarring events” in her relationship with Joel, including one night in an NYC restaurant where he left her and their daughter to go drink at a bar next door.
Affair Rumors
There were reports that Joel cheated on Brinkley during their marriage, which he denied.
“Because I desperately wanted to make things to work, I refused to think about it anymore, choosing instead to believe him,” she wrote. This topic came up again, which caused a massive blowout between the former couple.
“A friend from Australia called to tell me, slowly and reluctantly, that she’d seen an article in a Melbourne paper with photos of Billy out romantically with an Australian actress,” she wrote. (He denied it and she “always” believed him.)
Brinkley then called Joel and told him to find a different place to sleep. He returned to the hotel where they were staying drunk that same night and tried to get into their room.
“When I didn’t answer, he did something unimaginable: he picked up a chaise longue and threw it right through the doors of the patio, shattering the glass into a million pieces,” she wrote. “While I couldn’t quite believe I was literally running away from the man I loved so much, I didn’t ever want to see him like that — and I certainly didn’t want our daughter to see him like that.”
The End of Their Marriage
As things started to worsen, Brinkley eventually asked for a divorce in 1993 because his drinking became “the other women” in their marriage.
“To be clear, I never wanted to end things with Billy,” she clarified. “I did everything for our marriage, constantly working to make myself, our home, and everything around us into whatever he could possibly want or hope for. I continually told him how much I loved him, making sure he always felt adored and appreciated, because he was.”
The Moment She Knew
Brinkley knew things between her and Billy were over following her 1994 plane crash. He went to Colorado — where the accident took place — “like a knight in shining armor.”
“In that moment, I thought my prince had finally come to rescue me, and I waited for Billy to say the words I so badly wanted to hear: ‘I almost lost you, I can’t live without you,I love you,’” she recalled. During their flight back home, he made a phone call from the airplane that Brinkley presumably wasn’t supposed to hear.
“I was very much awake when I heard him say the words I didn’t ever want to hear: ‘No, don’t worry. I’m not going back to her. I just need to see her through this.’ And just like that, the dream broke apart like debris,” she wrote.
Us Weekly has reached out to Joel’s team for comment.
