Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley's Relationship Timeline: A Glance Back Over 30 Years
Billy and Christie's romance story is heartwarming, even though they aren't married anymore.
Published April 30 2024, 5:30 p.m. ET
The romance between Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley is one that's been etched into the annals of celebrity history, resonating as a tale of love, fame, and the complexities that accompany life under the spotlight. This iconic duo, each a legend in their own right—Billy with his soul-stirring melodies and Christie with her timeless beauty gracing covers and capturing hearts worldwide—created a narrative that still fascinates fans and onlookers decades later.
Their relationship, marked by its high-profile nature, not only captivated the public's imagination but also mirrored the highs and lows familiar to many, albeit on a grander scale. But, what does Billy and Christie's relationship timeline look like?
Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley married in March 1985.
Billy and Christie met in 1983 while both of them were vacationing on the Caribbean islands, according to InStyle. Christie worked as a model and is well-known for her three consecutive appearances on the covers of Sports Illustrated. Billy and Christie married back in March 1985. People revealed that the couple got married on a 147-foot yacht in the New York Harbor.
Sports Illustrated shared an interview with Christie, who stated, "When you start to get famous, you need a backyard, a place where you can get away from it all. I told Joe one day that the second-worst thing I could think of would be to be famous and poor because then you couldn't escape to some island." Later that year in Dec. 1985, Christie and Billy had their first daughter, Alexa Ray Joel. After being together for nearly 10 years, Christie and Billy divorced in August 1994.
Billy also shared about his experience writing Uptown Girl about Christie. According to Fox News, Billy stated, "I wasn't even dating Christie when I started writing the song, I was dating Elle (Macpherson). 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. 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."
Billy and Christie are proof that not all divorces make enemies.
On April 26, 2024, a fan of Billy caught Christie dancing around to Uptown Girl while at Billy's concert at the Madison Square Garden. The TikTok video has a caption on the clip, reading, "Billy Joel wrote 'Uptown Girl' about his then-partner Christie Brinkley. Tonight she watched him sing the song he wrote about her to all of Madison Square Garden."
Even though the couple has been split for nearly 30 years, they've both made it clear in interviews that they're still friends. “Many years after our divorce, Billy would still come to my house for the Christmas singalong and play the piano, and all our friends would come over and sing Christmas carols. Singalongs are one of my favorite things to do. And you know that’s what makes everybody happy,” Christie shared with Social Life Magazine.