Why Did "Piano Man" Billy Joel and Supermodel Christie Brinkley Divorce?

In the 1980s, few couples were as dreamboat-ish and high profile as "Piano Man" singer Billy Joel and model Christie Brinkley. They were both at the top of their careers, and their romantic collab was a dream come true for fans who loved seeing the duo together.

Unfortunately, they weren't the kind of love that lasts through the ages, at least not in a marital sense.

But why did Billy and Christie divorce? Here's what we know about why their storybook romance went sour and how they've managed to patch things up through the years.

Prior to marrying Billy, Christie was married to Jean Francois Allaux, a French illustrator whom People reports swept the model off her feet. Those two divorced in 1981, and she fell in love again shortly after.

This time, with a man named Olivier Chandon, an heir to a French champagne fortune. The outlet reports that he tragically died in 1983 doing what he loved: racing cars.

And then along came Billy Joel.

Of their relationship, Christie told People, "We laughed like you couldn’t believe. And seeing him in concert, I felt like the luckiest girl in the whole arena. I liked to be right in the front row by the piano so he could glance at me and I could look up and see everything.” They married in 1985 and welcomed their daughter Alexa Ray Joel shortly after.

But, she added, by the time they divorced in 1994, "our relationship wasn't functioning in the way you want it to anymore and it was painful.”

In 2023, Christie told Page Six that she and Billy were "probably soulmates." However, he had a habit of disappearing for "days at a time." His issues with alcohol and substance abuse disorder ultimately led to their painful split. What finally broke her, she told the outlet, was a dinner at their East Hamptons home where he was utterly out of touch with reality. "He was acting delusional in a way I’d never seen before,” she shared. She filed for divorce the next day.

These days, they seem to be co-parenting their adult children peacefully, especially since Billy stopped drinking "a few years ago." Christie told Page Six, "He’s the father of my firstborn, and we spent such great formative years together. And I’ll love him forever." She added that she did speak to him before releasing her book, Uptown Girl, in 2025, which dove into her four marriages, her career, and her life in the spotlight.

The book's title drew attention to a story that used to swirl about the music video for Billy's song of the same name, "Uptown Girl." The rumor was that Billy had written the song about Christie, and it was his talent as a lyricist that stole her heart.

However, Billy sat down with shock jock Howard Stern to set the record straight in 2023.

"I wasn't even dating Christie when I wrote the song, I was dating Elle [McPherson]." Billy described not being able to believe all these "beautiful women" that he was spending time with.

So while Christie, who starred in the music video, was forever tied to the song, she was not the original subject of the song. But Billy went on to add that as he started dating Christie, the song went from being about "all these women" to just being about Christie.

Whether or not she was the original inspiration for the song, she eventually came to own it in a way that nobody else will ever be able to claim.

And although things ended painfully with Billy, they'll always share their mutual respect and love. And, of course, their daughter Alexa, who looks and sings like her dad but turns heads like her mom.