Christie Brinkley blames Billy Joels drinking for their painful divorce: I never wanted to end things

The Piano Man and the Uptown Girl.Christie Brinkley reflects on her marriage to Billy Joel in her upcoming memoir, “Uptown Girl” (out April 29).In People’s excerpts published Wednesday, the 71-year-old model blamed the singer’s drinking for their divorce.“To be clear, I never wanted to end things with Billy.

But his drinking was bigger than the both of us,” she said.Brinkley also told the outlet, “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.”Brinkley and Joel, 75, were married from 1985 to 1994, and have a daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, 39, who has a singing career of her own.Joel struggled with alcoholism for many years.

He went to rehab for the first time in 1992 and got sober, but returned to rehab in 2005 after he relapsed.In 2023, Joel told the Los Angeles Times that he stopped drinking “a couple of years ago.”“It wasn’t a big AA kick.I just got to a point where I’d had enough,” he said.

“I didn’t enjoy being completely inebriated, and it probably created more problems in my life than I needed.”When asked if he ever has an “instinct” to drink after a show, Joel said, “I don’t need it now.I used to get offstage and be so wound up and adrenalized that I needed something to calm down to go to sleep.

But I realized when you’re drinking yourself to sleep, you’re not really sleeping.You’re just passing out.”After her divorce from Joel, Brinkley had two more marriages, one to Colorado real estate developer Ricky Taubman, and another to architect Peter Cook, that both ended in divorce.

Brinkley welcomed son Jack, 29, with Taubman and daughter Sailor, 26, with Cook.Brinkley told People that she’s stayed friendly with Joel and they have a “great” relationship today.”He lives mainly in Florida so we don’t see him as much as when he lived in Sag Harbor,” she sa...