Christie Brinkley is looking back at an argument she had with her ex-husband Billy Joel that spelled the end of their nine-year marriage.
The model, who married Joel in 1985, explained that the singer’s excessive drinking and their limited time together while he was on his two-year-long River of Dreams tour pushed their relationship to its limit in 1994.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that his drinking got pretty bad,” Brinkley said in the second installment of Joel’s HBO documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes. “And he couldn’t really remember what he did when he was drinking, and so he didn’t really know how he could hurt people.”
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Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley in 1991
It got so bad, Brinkley recalled, that she would often “just pretend that I was sleeping when he’d come in” because she “didn’t wanna see him in that condition” anymore.
“And then one night we had an argument and I said, ‘I really can’t take this anymore, and I’m just gonna take Alexa back up to New York and leave,’” she said, referring to the couple’s daughter, Alexa Ray Joel. “And he said, ‘Yeah, fine, go.’”
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Their divorce taught Joel that “love is not concrete.”
“You feel like it is,” he said, “but there are things eating away at it. And, in the end, it all catches up. And it’s hard. And I was so devastated.”
Brinkley was equally hurt by the end of their marriage.
“I tried,” she said. “I wanted it to work. I knew how lucky I was having music and all of that, but…it just didn’t work.”
Earlier in the documentary, Brinkley, who starred in Joel’s “Uptown Girl” music video, explained that his River of Dreams tour, which ran from 1993 until 1995, had a real impact on their bond.
“Our relationship went from lots of fun and really, totally enjoying each other and everything, to his work consuming him,” she said. “And if I did go on the road, I wasn’t seeing him because the unwind period after the show was going on til late into the night. And it’s like, what am I even doing here?”
It got to a point where Brinkley didn’t know what the best course of action was for her or their daughter, Alexa.
“I can’t be lonely just me and Alexa in this big ol’ house that was supposed to be so full of life and love and music and laughter and all of that,” she admitted as she became visibly emotional. “Things were starting to deteriorate.”
Joel could also see that their marriage was suffering.
“I was in a relationship with someone who I care deeply about, but I was not able to be at home,” he said. “I was not able to be with my family. It was a very sad time for me.”
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Billy Joel performs onstage during the last show of his residency at Madison Square Garden on July 25, 2024, in New York City
In her 2025 memoir Uptown Girl, Brinkley confirmed she “never wanted to end things with Billy,” but that his drinking had taken a serious toll on their marriage.
“Booze was the other woman,” she wrote, “and it was beginning to seem that he preferred to be with ‘her’ rather than with me.”
She also recalled an instance in which Joel allegedly “went ballistic” at her and his bandmates over missing pasta and another in which she claimed that he cheated on her with a caterer after a New Year’s Eve concert.
Despite going their separate ways, Brinkley and Joel remain amicable to this day. She recently posted a message of support for the five-time Grammy winner after he revealed that he’d been diagnosed with a brain disorder.
“You’re OUR piano man,” she wrote in part on Instagram. “And we’re always in the mood for your melodies and we all hope you’re feeling alright! We love you.”
Billy Joel: And So It Goes is streaming on HBO Max.
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