Christie Brinkley reveals why marriage to Billy Joel ended: “Booze was the other woman”
Christie Brinkley has revealed the reason why her marriage to Billy Joel ended, admitting that “booze was the other woman.”
The former supermodel has shared a rare glimpse into her private life in her new memoir Uptown Girl, sharing that Joel’s alcoholism eventually killed their marriage, which lasted from 1985 to 1994.
In a new interview with Page Six, Brinkley said that the breaking point for the end of the pair’s relationship came when “he was acting delusional in a way I’d never seen before,” revealing that she told Joel she was divorcing him the next day.
“The drinking was bigger than the both of us. Booze was the other woman and it was beginning to seem that he preferred to be with her rather than me,” she added.
Now at the age of 71, Brinkley has had the chance to reconcile a friendship with the ‘Piano Man’, saying: “He’s the father of my firstborn and we spent such great formative years together. And I’ll love him forever.”
She continued by noting that Joel has been supportive of her writing her book, recalling that he told her: “Go ahead and tell your story… the good, the bad, whatever you need to say.”
The title of Brinkley’s memoirs, Uptown Girl, takes its name from Joel’s 1983 monster hit, which he claimed was written about his then-wife but later admitted was originally called ‘Uptown Girls’ as it was inspired by a number of relationships he had with different women at the time.
For the part of Brinkley, she became the singer’s second wife after he divorced Elizabeth Weber in 1982. She was one of a number of 1980s supermodels that Joel famously dated at the time, including Elle Macpherson.
Meanwhile, Joel revealed in 2023 that he’d been sober for two years, explaining to the Los Angeles Times, “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.”
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