Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel's Relationship Timeline: A Look Back

Five-time Grammy-winner Billy Joel and model-turned-actress and entrepreneur Christie Brinkley were a visual feast for the paparazzi when they first got together in the early '80s — and throughout their nearly 10-year relationship. 

As you can imagine, the highly sought-after power couple — a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and a pianist on the up and up — needed to get creative to dodge a media frenzy.

Their strategy? Going incognito, or at least attempting to, by booking hotels under the names "Rocky" and "Sandy Shore." While we appreciate their ingenuity, it's hard to believe that said aliases wouldn't be a red flag to literally anyone. 

Regardless, the pair went on to work together, get married, and have a child, before separating in 1994. Since their divorce, the exes are still on good terms and occasionally host Christmas carol singalongs together during the holiday season, as Brinkley revealed to Social Life magazine in 2019. 

Here's a look back at Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel's relationship.

1983: Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel first meet

In true celebrity style, Joel and Brinkley met in St. Bart's. Both parties were vacationing on the Caribbean island in early 1983. To get Brinkley's attention, Joel did what he called "an album cover." 

"I tried to look like me on an album cover. I gave it every angle I could." 

Recreating the album cover didn't work, but Joel ran across some luck later on when the "Piano Man" singer began playing piano at a bar on the island (occupied by Brinkley, Whitney Houston, and Elle Macpherson, of course). 

"The music was the key to the introduction," Joel told Rolling Stone in 1986. "She sat down and started singing, too."

At the time, Brinkley was fresh off the heels of her relationship with race car driver and heir to Moët et Chandon, Olivier Chandon de Brailles. Shortly after Joel and Brinkley's chance meeting, Chandon was killed in a car accident. Joel reached out to Brinkley following the tragic news, establishing a friendship. They began dating soon after.

1983: Christie Brinkley stars in Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" music video

Joel began writing the song "Uptown Girl" while dating Macpherson. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live in 2018, Macpherson weighed in on an anecdote from Joel's canceled 2011 memoir. Joel claimed that Macpherson had been waiting for him in his apartment when he came home with Brinkley one night. As Macpherson remembered, she was living with Joel when he began dating Brinkley.

"I got ousted," Macpherson said. 

Shortly thereafter, the original "Uptown Girl" eventually transformed into being solely about Brinkley — who was featured in the music video — Joel told Howard Stern in 2010.

March 23, 1985: Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel get married

In 1985, the couple wed in New York Harbor while aboard a 147-foot yacht before buying a home on Long Island, per People. "When you start to get famous, you need a backyard, a place where you can get away from it all," Brinkley told Sports Illustrated in 1989. "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." 

Joel defended his wife against critics who assumed her supermodel status implied she was stupid and insipid. 

"What bothers me is when because of what she looks like and what she does for a living, people fall back on the stereotype of her as being a dumb blonde — which she definitely is not," he told Rolling Stone in 1990. They say 'supermodel' like that's supposed to mean she's vapid and shallow — which she's not."

That being said, Joel was also pretty caught up in appearances. In the same interview, he admitted he wanted people to look at her while she was with him. 

"I say, 'Go ahead, check it out. She's pretty, isn't she? Look all you want. And she's married to me, you know?'" 

While showing her off was fun, he, too, fell into the model stereotype at first.

December 29, 1985: Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel welcome a daughter

Brinkley and Joel welcomed daughter Alexa Ray in 1985. Although Alexa is their only child, Joel and Brinkley have kids from other relationships — Brinkley shares daughter Sailor and son Jack Paris with ex-husband Peter Cook. Meanwhile, Joel and his wife, Alexis Roderick, share two daughters, Della Rose (born August 2015) and daughter Remy Anne (born October 2017).

1994: Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel divorce

In April 1994, Joel and Brinkley decided to split after nine years of marriage. People reported the two had been separated since Thanksgiving, with the outlet attributing the cause of the divorce to many factors — including Brinkley's desire to move to the West Coast and her frustrations with Joel's touring schedule. However, Brinkley hinted at another possible reason in 2001. 

"Just because people can express themselves through their art doesn't mean they are great communicators in person," she said, per Entertainment Weekly. 

Their divorce was finalized in August 1994, though no details of the division of assets and custody arrangements were publicly revealed.