Christie Brinkley gets candid about her red-hot romance with ex-husband Billy Joel in her upcoming memoir Uptown Girl.
The supermodel, now 71, and the legendary musician, 75, ignited a fan frenzy when they met at a dive bar in St. Barts in 1983, launching a whirlwind relationship that seamlessly fused fashion and music.
Their love story played out in the public eye and Joel famously cast Brinkley in the music video for his 1983 hit song Uptown Girl, which was inspired by her.
They married in 1985, welcomed daughter Alexa Ray that same year, and were hailed as pop culture royalty throughout their nearly decade-long union.
But behind the glamorous façade, the marriage began to unravel, with Brinkley revealing that Joel’s battle with substance abuse ultimately led to their split.
‘To be clear,’ she wrote in the book, per an excerpt from People, ‘I never wanted to end things with Billy. But his drinking was bigger than the both of us.’
Christie Brinkley gets candid about her red-hot romance with ex-husband Billy Joel in her upcoming memoir Uptown Girl; (seen in January 2025)
The supermodel, now 71, and the legendary musician, 75, ignited a fan frenzy when they met at a dive bar in St. Barts in 1983, launching a whirlwind relationship that seamlessly fused fashion and music; (pictured 1990)
But behind the glamorous façade, the marriage began to unravel, with Brinkley revealing that Joel’s battle with substance abuse ultimately led to their split; (pitctured 1983)
Reflecting on the breakup, she added, ‘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.’
Joel has spoken openly about his struggles with alcohol, having entered rehab twice—first in 2002 and again in 2005.
In 2023, Joel told the Los Angeles Times that he stopped drinking ‘a couple of years ago.’
He said, ‘It wasn’t a big AA kick. I just got to a point where I’d had enough.
‘I didn’t enjoy being completely inebriated, and it probably created more problems in my life than I needed.’
Brinkley also made sure to highlight the beautiful moments of her romance with Billy Joel, recalling how she fell ‘hopelessly in love’ with the legendary musician.
‘We laughed like you couldn’t believe,’ she told People. ‘But also he was so sensitive and he did all the old-fashioned things—the flowers, the notes and the poems and the songs.
‘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?’
She added, ‘When I heard him sing on stage, I found myself undeniably attached to this physically hot and charismatic man.’
Despite their split, Brinkley and Joel have remained on good terms, and she describes their relationship today as ‘great.’
‘He lives mainly in Florida so we don’t see him as much as when he lived in Sag Harbor,’ she noted to the outlet, ‘but when he comes by to see Alexa, he’ll come in and say hello.’
‘To be clear,’ she wrote in the book, per an excerpt from People , ‘I never wanted to end things with Billy. But his drinking was bigger than the both of us,’ (pictured 1990)
Reflecting on the breakup, she added, ‘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,’ (with daughter Alexa Ray circa 1988)
Despite their split, Brinkley and Joel have remained on good terms, and she describes their relationship today as ‘great’; (seen in 2011)
Both went on to pursue other serious relationships after parting ways.
Brinkley married real estate developer Richard Taubman in 1994, with whom she had a son, Jack, though they divorced a year later.
She later wed architect Peter Cook in 1996, but their marriage ended in a highly publicized split in 2008 following his infidelity.
They had welcomed a daughter named Sailor Brinkley-Cook in 1998.
‘There were some doozies,’ Christie said of her relationships to the outlet.
Joel, meanwhile, began dating food writer and TV personality Katie Lee in 2003, when she was 22 and he was 55.
The pair married in 2004 and divorced in 2010 after five years together.
He eventually found lasting love with Alexis Roderick, 42, whom he married in 2015; the couple now share two daughters.
