Christie Brinkley Says Ex Billy Joel's Drinking Led to Divorce: It Was 'Painful'

In People's excerpt from her upcoming memoir, Uptown Girl, the model opened up about her relationship, marriage, and subsequent divorce from the singer.

Brinkley, 71, and Joel, 75, tied the knot in 1985 after two years of dating. The pair welcomed daughter Alexa later that year, before the couple called it quits in 1994.

According to Brinkley, Joel's struggles with alcohol led to the dissolution of their marriage.

"To be clear," she writes in her book, per People. "I never wanted to end things with Billy. But his drinking was bigger than the both of us."

"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," she adds.

As shown in the excerpt, Brinkley recalled how she became "hopelessly in love" with Joel, and looked back at her first meeting with the "Piano Man" singer at a dive bar in St. Barts in 1983.

"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 writes, adding that she initially didn't know if his last name was "Joel" or "Joe."

Brinkley notes that she "decided to play it safe," and told the singer he looked like a "Joe."

While speaking with People about the memoir, Brinkley reflected on their whirlwind romance.

"We laughed like you couldn't believe," she said. "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?"

"When I heard him sing on stage," she recalled, "I found myself undeniably attached to this physically hot and charismatic man."

The actress compared her and Joel during their romance to "teenagers falling in love," sharing that the Grammy winner made her laugh.

"We called each other Bada Bing and Bada Boom," she told People. "Because we were really like teenagers falling in love. We were suddenly fumbling and stuttering and dropping things."

Despite their divorce -- and their respective marriages in the years that followed -- Brinkley and Joel have remained close, with Brinkley telling People their relationship is "great."

"He lives mainly in Florida so we don’t see him as much as when he lived in Sag Harbor," she notes, "but when he comes by to see Alexa, he'll come in and say hello."

Brinkley also revealed that their daughter, Alexa, has spoken to Joel about her memoir, which shares a name with the Joel hit of the same name. Brinkley, of course, starred in the music video.

"Alexa described it to him," she shared, "and he's like, 'Sounds good, no problem.'"

Uptown Girl will be released on April 29, 2025. Pre-order it here.