Christie Brinkley admits leaving Billy Joel wasn't easy, says 'booze was the other woman'
During an interview with Fox News Digital, Brinkley talked about her memoir, "Uptown Girl," a nod to the 1983 hit Joel created about the actress, and what she wrote of her nearly 10-year marriage to the music icon.
In the memoir, Brinkley wrote about Joel's drinking problem being the "other woman" in their marriage.
"To be clear, I never wanted to end things with Billy. I read every self-help book I could find while, together, we went to see a string of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other medical doctors," Brinkley wrote in an excerpt obtained by Fox News Digital.
"I did everything for our marriage, constantly working to make myself, our home, and everything around us into whatever he could possibly want or hope for. I continually told him how much I loved him, making sure he always felt adored and appreciated, because he was.
"But his drinking was bigger than the both of us—booze was the other woman, and it was beginning to seem that, he preferred to be with 'her' rather than with me," Brinkley wrote.
"But his drinking was bigger than the both of us—booze was the other woman, and it was beginning to seem that, he preferred to be with 'her' rather than with me."
During her interview with Fox News Digital, Brinkley shared that Joel met her and his ex-girlfriend, Elle Macpherson, on the same night out. Joel went on to date Macpherson for a brief time before he became serious with Brinkley.
"Elle and I met Billy on the same night, and that was the night that I thought I know I want to be friends with this guy forever, but I had other things going on in my life, but I knew I wanted to keep him as a friend. We hit it off immediately. I mean, immediately," Brinkley said.
She continued, "And then when he came back into my life and he was so wonderful and I started to see him differently. And so I think it was really great to start out with a friendship and have that friendship evolve into a full-on romantic adventure."
The title of Brinkley's memoir seems to be a nod to Joel's 1983 "Uptown Girl," which he has admitted to have written for Brinkley.
In 2010, Joel finally confirmed that "Uptown Girl" was written about Brinkley (she did appear in the music video), although he explained that there was more to the story.
"I wasn't even dating Christie when I started writing the song, I was dating Elle [Macpherson]," Joel shared on "The Howard Stern Show." He remembered a moment when he was surrounded by Brinkley, Macpherson and Whitney Houston while he was working on the song.
"That's why I started writing a song called 'Uptown Girls'. It was plural. I couldn't believe, you know, the situation I was in," he said of having a bevy of beauties near him.
Joel said when he and Macpherson went their separate ways, the nature of the song changed because of his relationship with Brinkley. "And then I started dating Christie and rather than it [being] about all these different girls, she became the 'Uptown Girl.' I started writing it about one person."
Brinkley and Joel were married from 1985 until the model filed for divorce in 1994 and the couple share a daughter, Alexa Ray Joel. Brinkley told Fox News Digital that it wasn't easy to end her marriage to Joel.
"Well, I mean, when you have a child involved, you may get those thoughts, but to walk away isn't easy. And to walk away from Billy was not easy. So it took time, but at a certain point there's one incident too many, and you just have to have a little self-preservation," Brinkley said.
Both the model and musician have since moved on. In 1994, Brinkley was briefly married to Richard Taubman. She was married to Peter Cook from 1996 to 2008. They have two children together.
Joel married Katie Lee in 2004 only to split in 2009. He is now married to Alexis Roderick. The couple has two daughters.
Brinkley hasn't given up hope of finding romance again in her life.
"I find love is the strongest thing in the whole world, and we are surrounded with love," she told Fox News Digital. "There's so many kinds of love: love for our friends, love for our families, love for nature and love for people that protect nature."
"I just feel like my life is so full of love. And so I think if there's a romantic love that comes along as well, it would be wonderful. But I also feel very content and happy with the life that I have right now, and I consider my life to be very full of love," Brinkley said.
Brinkley's "Uptown Girl" memoir hits the shelves on April 29.
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