Christie Brinkley simply pulled a 180 by revealing she wasn’t the muse behind Billy Joel’s large hit.
It has been assumed Brinkley was the singer’s Uptown Woman for years – however in her surprising new memoir, she says the tune was by no means about her, however a “fantasy woman” as a substitute, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
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The mannequin stated Joel later got here to the conclusion she was his ‘Uptown Woman’ after that they had been relationship for a couple of months.
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Brinkley, 73, was married to Joel, 75, from 1985 to 1994, making him her second husband. Collectively, they’ve one daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, now 39.
The couple first crossed paths in 1983 on the Caribbean island of St. Barts and tied the knot on March 23, 1985, aboard a yacht on the Hudson River; which was additionally Joel’s second marriage.
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Joel was Brinkley’s second husband, and the 2 share 39-year-old daughter Alexa.
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In her new memoir, paradoxically titled Uptown Woman, Brinkley admitted Joel’s tune wasn’t initially written along with her because the inspiration – even if she starred within the music video.
She wrote: “Six months into our relationship and one month after An Harmless Man began dominating the airwaves, we did one thing that might change my life and characterize us as a pair for the remainder of our relationship: we made the music video for Billy’s new tune ‘Uptown Woman.
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“In contrast to what many individuals suppose, Billy didn’t write the hit about me – a minimum of, not initially – nor about Elle MacPherson, however about somebody who was as a lot fantasy as ‘the Woman within the Crimson Ferrari.'”
Nonetheless, Uptown Woman rapidly turned Brinkley’s signature tune after Joel got here to the conclusion she was the “fantasy woman” in his head all alongside.
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The mannequin wrote: “(Till) sooner or later, once we had been out in his house on Lengthy Island, which missed Oyster Bay Harbor, and he immediately turned to me with a smile on his face that grew wider as he spoke.”
She recalled him saying: “I simply realized one thing about this tune that I began writing some time in the past about somebody I used to be imagining.
“And now I’m you right here, and I don’t must think about her anymore – you are proper right here in entrance of me, you are my actual uptown woman.”
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Elsewhere in her guide, Brinkley revealed the struggles of dwelling with Joel’s alcohol dependancy – although she was initially reluctant to share a few of the particulars in writing.
Earlier than the guide’s launch, she stated the singer would go lacking for days on alcohol-fueled benders, leaving her stricken by terrifying visions of him crashed right into a tree.
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Brinkley’s new memoir reveals bombshells from her 4 marriages, together with her struggles with Joel’s alcoholism.
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She defined: “If there wasn’t that difficulty … I do suppose that we had been most likely actually soulmates, it was an incredible time of my life.”
One time, Joel vanished in the course of their Thanksgiving dinner, and Brinkley locked him out of their Hawaii resort suite after listening to he’d been noticed with an Australian actress.
He got here again “visibly and audibly drunk,” Brinkley wrote in her guide, and broke out right into a match of rage.
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The breaking level got here when Joel, drunk, blamed his band for consuming his pasta at their East Hamptons house – although he’d eaten all of it himself.
Revealing she requested him for a divorce the subsequent day, Brinkley stated: “He was performing delusional in a means I’d by no means seen earlier than.”
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Brinkley stated: “To be clear, I by no means needed to finish issues with Billy. I learn each self-help guide I may discover… we went to see a string of psychiatrists, psychologists and different medical docs.”
The Movin’ Out singer first went to rehab in 1992 and obtained sober, however returned in 2005 after a relapse.
In 2023, he advised the Los Angeles Instances that he stopped ingesting “a few years in the past.” He’s now married to his fourth spouse, Alexis Roderick, they usually have younger daughters Della Rose and Remy Anne.
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Brinkley continued: “He’s the daddy of my firstborn and we spent such nice childhood collectively. And I’ll love him without end. Issues simply reached some extent the place I knew I couldn’t reside with him.”
She additionally confirmed she spoke to Joel earlier than writing her new guide.
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Brinkley stated she continues to be near Joel and even talked to him previous to releasing her memoir.
She defined: “Billy stated, ‘Go forward and inform your story… the great, the unhealthy, no matter it’s good to say.’
“Leaving Billy wasn’t straightforward for me to do — and it isn’t straightforward to say something unhealthy about any individual that I maintain in such excessive regard… (though) I don’t suppose it’s unhealthy.”
Previous to Joel, Brinkley was married to Jean-François Allaux, and later tied the knot with Richard Taubman and Peter Cook dinner. Her relationship with Cook dinner resulted in 2008 after studying of his infidelity.