Christie Brinkley is baring her soul in a moving new memoir, Uptown Girl, where she opens up for the first time about the private heartbreak behind her picture-perfect marriage to music icon Billy Joel.
The supermodel, 71, who captured the hearts of millions as the face of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, reflected on her nine-year marriage to the “Piano Man” singer, 75, describing it as a time filled with love and devastating pain.
Christie and Billy, who married in 1985, were once seen as one of Hollywood’s golden couples, raising their daughter Alexa Ray Joel, now 39, while travelling the world together.
Christie’s turbulent marriage to Billy
But behind the glamorous façade, Christie reveals, the marriage was increasingly marred by Billy’s struggle with alcohol – and terrifying periods when he would vanish for days on end.
“If there wasn’t that issue,” Christie admitted, “I do think that we were probably really soulmates. It was an amazing time of my life.”
Reflecting on their early years, Christie described their bond as magical. “I had so much fun. We were such nomads, gypsies — just between his job and mine, we were seeing the world. It was wonderful, really wonderful,” she wrote.
© Getty ImagesBilly’s drinking problems
But the fairytale began to unravel when Billy’s drinking escalated. In her memoir, Christie recalls horrifying moments where he would disappear without warning, leaving her gripped by fear for his safety.
One particularly harrowing memory was during their daughter Alexa Ray’s fifth birthday party, when Billy suddenly left and was missing for two agonising days.
“I had visions of his car wrapped around a tree,” Christie revealed. “There was a panic I couldn’t shake.”
© FilmMagicThe disappearances didn’t stop there. Christie recounted another devastating incident when Billy vanished during a family Thanksgiving celebration.
On a separate occasion, she was left heartbroken after photographs emerged of him out with an Australian actress while he was supposed to be away on tour.
During a trip to Hawaii, following yet another unexplained absence, Christie took the drastic step of locking Billy out of their hotel room. She recalled how he returned “visibly and audibly drunk,” and in a fit of rage, threw a chaise lounge through the glass patio doors, shattering them into pieces.
Christie’s breaking point
For Christie, the breaking point came during what was supposed to be a relaxed rehearsal at their East Hamptons home. Hosting Billy’s bandmates, Christie watched in despair as her husband, inebriated, accused the musicians of eating his pasta – pasta that, in truth, he had eaten himself.
“He was acting delusional in a way I’d never seen before,” she remembered. The incident left her deeply shaken, and the next day, she made the heartbreaking decision to ask for a divorce.
“To be clear, I never wanted to end things with Billy,” Christie confessed. “I read every self-help book I could find. We went to see a string of psychiatrists, psychologists and other medical doctors.”
But, as she painfully realised, the force of addiction was bigger than their love. “The drinking was bigger than the both of us,” she wrote.
© Getty ImagesPerhaps the most poignant admission in her memoir is Christie’s description of alcohol as “the other woman” in their marriage.
“Booze was the other woman and it was beginning to seem that he preferred to be with her rather than me,” she shared. “He’s the father of my firstborn and we spent such great formative years together. And I’ll love him forever. Things just reached a point where I knew I couldn’t live with him.”
Billy’s blessing
Before writing Uptown Girl, Christie made sure to seek Billy’s blessing to tell her story in full – the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking.
“Billy said, ‘Go ahead and tell your story… the good, the bad, whatever you need to say,'” she revealed.
“Leaving Billy wasn’t easy for me to do, and it’s not easy to say anything bad about somebody that I hold in such high regard,” Christie added. “Although, I don’t think it’s bad. It’s just the truth.”
Christie praised Billy’s courage in allowing those closest to him to speak honestly about their experiences.
“When you’re in the throes of a drinking addiction, you don’t remember what you did,” she said. “You wake up the next day and it’s the person who is counting on you who knows what happened.”
“And it’s brave of Billy to say to people around him, ‘You can speak freely, tell your story.’ And I think that’s part of his recovery.”
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