Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel at a party in New York City in 1985. Photo / Getty Images
Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel at a party in New York City in 1985. Photo / Getty Images
Christie Brinkley described her marriage to Billy Joel as ‘painful’ by the end.
She reflected on feeling lost and making ‘really bad choices’ after their divorce.
Brinkley emphasised that love must be cherished and nurtured, but it cannot be changed.
Christie Brinkley’s marriage to Billy Joel was “painful” by the end.
The 71-year-old model tied the knot with Uptown Girl singer Joel, 75, in 1985.
Even though there was a time that she felt like the “luckiest girl”, the whole relationship just eventually stopped “functioning” so they divorced after almost a decade together.
Writing in her new memoir Uptown Girl, she said: “I still believe in love”.
“There were a few doozies. I had two great loves, [my first husband] Jean-Francois and Billy. 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. But [in the end], our relationship wasn’t functioning in the way you want it to anymore and it was painful.”
Billy Joel played at Eden Park in December 2022. Photo / Dean Purcell
Just months after her divorce from Billy, Christie survived a helicopter crash and reflected that she made some “really bad choices” at the time and she was still “reeling” from the split.
She told People: “I definitely had post-traumatic stress disorder and I was making some really bad choices. I was really lost.
“I was looking at myself in that chapter, like, what happened to you?
“I think I was reeling from losing Billy and and I was thinking Billy is going to come riding into town any second and go ‘I can’t lose you. I got in deeper. I didn’t take time to stop and reflect and learn.’”
Christie then married Richard Taubman in 1994 and they had Jack, 29, together but split up after just a year together.
The former Masked Singer contestant then married Peter Cook in 1996 and went on to have Sailor, 26, with him, but they divorced in 2008.
When asked about love in general, Christie insisted that it is something that needs to be “nurtured”, but it cannot be “changed” to fit around a situation or a want.
She added: “Love is something that you have to cherish while you have it and nurture it, but you can’t hang onto it and you can’t change it or mould it to your desires.”
