Christie Brinkley opens up about falling in love with Billy Joel in her new memoir, Uptown Girl.
In an excerpt published by People, Brinkley recalls meeting Joel in St. Barts in 1983 in, of all places, a motel dive bar. Joel was very sunburned, with Brinkley describing his skin as “the same color as cranberries and unctuous with oil, which he’d undoubtedly slathered on to soothe the burn.”
The supermodel admits she didn’t even know if his name was Billy Joel or Billy Joe. Regardless of the name flub, the two hit it off and soon began dating. Brinkley said Joel was very romantic and noted, ” … 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.”
Brinkley and Joel married in March of 1985 and welcomed their only child, Alexa Ray Joel, that December. Sadly, the couple divorced in 1994, but Brinkley notes, “To be clear, I never wanted to end things with Billy. But his drinking was bigger than the both of us.”
Joel did two stints in rehab in the 2000s to address his drinking and eventually learned how to drink in moderation. However, in a March 2023 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he revealed he stopped drinking “a couple of years ago.” Why? Joel explained, “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.”
More Details on the Christie Brinkley Memoir Uptown Girl
Brinkley announced Uptown Girl back in February. Published by HarperCollins, the memoir is 416 pages and contains over 100 photographs and never-before-seen pieces of artwork created by Brinkley.
HarperCollins states, “Her stories are as heartening as they are eye-opening, as she recounts her most formative chapters, including the betrayal she experienced by her biological father as a child, her lifelong passion for art, her whirlwind career, her four tumultuous marriages—including her heartbreaking divorce from Billy Joel—and the harrowing experiences that almost cut her life short.”
Brinkley shared the news of the book via Instagram and noted, “It will take you my dear readers from my life as a little girl, to cover girl, to uptown girl, and everything in between… with lots of adventures, some magic and some heartbreak along the way. I can’t wait to share these untold stories with you.”
Uptown Girl comes out on April 29 and is available for pre-order through a variety of different retailers at HarperCollins.com.
