.png)
9 months ago
28 ARTICLE AD
In his life behind the keys and beyond, Billy Joel has come to love a handful of women just the way they are. From his first marriage with Elizabeth Weber to his high-profile romance with Christie Brinkley to his time as Katie Lee’s (and his fling with Elle MacPherson), Billy has had quite the love life. As of 2024, he’s happily married to Alexis Roderick, an equestrian and former Morgan Stanley executive, and she’ll be on hand to see Billy close out his history-making run at Madison Square Garden, when he plays his 150th show there in July 2024.
While his decade-long residency at MSG may be coming to an end, Billy still has a lot of exciting things to come. The “Piano Man” released his first single in 17 years “Turn the Lights Back On” in February 2024. He’s also set to perform at the 2024 Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 4.
As Billy begins “Movin’ Out” of MSG, here’s a look at the women he’s married.
Alexis Roderick
(Myrna Suarez/WireImage)
Alexis Roderick married Billy Joel in 2015, six years after they first met. The two first connected at a restaurant in Huntington, New York, where they’d both gone with friends, per The New Yorker. At the time, she worked as a risk manager at Morgan Stanley. He got her number, finished eating, and called her on the phone from across the restaurant to ask if she’d give him a ride home. She dropped him off at his home in Centre Island on Long Island’s North Shore, and he invited her in.
Billy first offered to play something for her. She declined. He did it anyway. “It was like he couldn’t not be ‘Billy Joel’ at the moment,” she told The New Yorker. Afterward, she went home (“I might have gotten a bit fresh,” admits Billy.”) They began to date afterward, and in 2015, after Billy convinced her to quit her job on Wall Street, they tied the knot.At the time, Alexis was pregnant with their first child. She gave birth to Della Rose Joel in August 2015. In October 2017, she gave birth to their second child, Remy Anne Joel.
Katie Lee
(Gregory Pace/BEI/Shutterstock
Katie Lee (b. 1981) is a chef, cookbook author, and television food critic. She’s known for co-hosting Food Network’s The Kitchen and Beach Bites with Katie Lee on the Cooking Channel. She’s also appeared on Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship.
Billy and Katie met in 2003. “I really thought that Billy Joel had two hits,” she told Oprah.com. “I thought it was ‘Uptown Girl’ and ‘Piano Man,’ and that was basically it.” He was visiting New York City when he met Katie on the rooftop bar at The Penisula Hotel.
“I [was] coming out of the bathroom, and who do I almost bump into but him,” she says. Her friends asked Billy to join them for a drink, and from there, they went to dinner. “We had this great dinner, and we had pasta and white truffles, and he was really trying to impress me,” she said. “I’d say it was love at first bite because we had such a good meal, and we both love food, so that was what we bonded over.”
Billy made his move when they went to see Movin’ Out, the Broadway musical based on Billy’s music. “We go over, and he sings the last two songs of the show—jumps on stage, really laying it on thick,” she said. “I thought that he went over there every night and sang the last two songs of the show. I didn’t know that it was for me!”
Despite the 32-year age gap, Billy’s youthful spirit and Katie’s maturity made their romance work for a few years at least. They married in 2004. Five years later, they announced that they were separating. “This decision is a result of much thoughtful consideration. Billy and Katie remain caring friends with admiration and respect for each other,” the couple said in a statement, per the New York Post.
Christie Brinkley
(Adam Scull/photolink.net/mediapunch/Shutterstock)
Perhaps Billy’s most famous relationship was with Christie Brinkley. The couple met in 1983 when they were both vacationing in St. Barts. “I was going through a separation and divorce,” he told Rolling Stone in 1986. “I had just finished a tour, and I was exhausted. Paul Simon had rented a house down in a place called St. Bart’s, this island in the Caribbean, and he said, ‘Look, it’s great down here. It’s real quiet. Just take a break.’ It sounded like a good idea. When I was making the transfer flight — you go down to St. Martin, then you take a commuter plane — I saw Christie Brinkley. I recognized her immediately. She was more beautiful than she was in her pictures — ‘Oh, wow, that’s Christie Brinkley. I wonder if she knows who I am.’ So I did what I call an album cover — I tried to look like me on an album cover. I gave it every angle I could. She didn’t recognize me from a hole in the wall.”
“And then I was on St. Bart’s, and I went to this bar in the PLM hotel. They have a little piano there, and I had a couple of drinks. I was feeling, you know, a little melancholy. And there’s Christie Brinkley. And Whitney Houston and another girl, Elle [MacPherson], who is now also a famous model. I met them all at the same time,” he added.
At the time, Billy had a reputation for being a working-class rocker. Dating a supermodel changed that perception. “What I found was that I didn’t change, Christie didn’t change, but people’s reaction to us changed drastically: ‘Oh, well, he married this fabulously notorious model, and now he’s changed.'” he told Rolling Stone in 1986. As if I married her because she was famous or wealthy.”
After a few years of dating, Christie and Billy married. They wed in 1985 in New York Harbor while aboard a 147-foot yacht. Later in 1985, they welcomed daughter, Alexa Ray. However, the marriage was over less than a decade later. The couple split in 1994.
Christie is known for inspiring “This Is The Time” and his album, An Innocent Man. However, Christie’s friend – supermodel Elle MacPherson – is credited with inspiring “Uptown Girl,” according to Biography. Billy was dating both Christie and Elle at the same time, but he realized it wasn’t going to work out for him. His heart lay with Christie.
Elizabeth Weber
(Adam Scull/photolink/Shutterstock)
Billy’s first wife was Elizabeth Weber, and the relationship is described as “the costliest [he] ever had” by Biography. Billy met Elizabeth when she was married to his bandmate, Jon Small, in 1970. They began to have an affair, which eventually resulted in Elizabeth leaving both men once Jon found out. Billy, at age 21, became suicidal after that, according to The New York Times.
Billy and Elizabeth reconciled, and they were married in 1973. They divorced in 1982. However, before then, Billy had given Elizbeth’s brother, Frank Weber, a job working for him. Billy would later discover that Frank allegedly stole tens of millions from him. He eventually sued Weber for $30 million in compensatory damages and $60 million in punitive damages. Frank Weber declared bankruptcy and settled with Joel in 1990. In 2014, Page Six ran a feature on Fred Schruers’ biography, Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography, about Billy’s legal and financial woes when it came to his costly divorces.
