Behind every glossy celebrity marriage lurks an unseen reality. For Christie Brinkley, that reality included the recurring trauma of her husband Billy Joel disappearing without warning or contact.
In her revealing new memoir “Uptown Girl,” Brinkley exposes how their nine-year marriage was “increasingly marred by Billy’s struggle with alcohol – and terrifying periods when he would vanish for days on end.” These weren’t brief absences – Joel would completely disappear from their lives, sometimes for multiple days.
One particularly documented incident occurred during their daughter Alexa Ray’s fifth birthday celebration. Joel vanished for two full days, leaving the family celebration in disarray. This episode left Brinkley with “visions of his car wrapped around a tree” and developing “a panic I couldn’t shake.”
These weren’t isolated incidents. Brinkley details other alarming disappearances, including Joel missing Thanksgiving dinner and other family events without explanation. As his drinking escalated, the frequency and duration of these absences took an increasingly severe toll on their family life.
According to Brinkley’s memoir, the breaking point arrived after a disturbing incident involving Joel and his band. “He was acting delusional in a way I’d never seen before,” she recalled, revealing she asked for a divorce the very next day.
In her memoir, Brinkley frames alcohol as the destructive third party in their relationship: “Booze was the other woman and it was beginning to seem that he preferred to be with her rather than me.” The metaphor powerfully captures how addiction had supplanted her in her husband’s priorities. It is completely heartbreaking for those who have been following the Billy Joel saga.
Despite the pattern of disappearances, Brinkley emphasizes that ending the marriage wasn’t her desire. “To be clear, I never wanted to end things with Billy,” she writes. “I read every self-help book I could find. We went to see a string of psychiatrists, psychologists and other medical doctors.” But ultimately, the unpredictability and fear became unsustainable: “The drinking was bigger than the both of us.”
Joel has since addressed his struggles with alcohol. In a 2023 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he stated he had “stopped drinking completely a couple of years ago.” Before Brinkley published her account of their troubled marriage, she sought Joel’s permission. His response was straightforward: “Go ahead and tell your story… the good, the bad, whatever you need to say.”
Through her documented experiences, Brinkley highlights addiction’s devastating impact on families. “When you’re in the throes of a drinking addiction, you don’t remember what you did,” she observed. “It’s the person who is counting on you who knows what happened.”
Her memoir provides a sobering reminder that behind celebratory public appearances and chart-topping hits existed a family repeatedly fractured by unexplained absences – a reality far from the fantasy their public image projected.
