When Billy Joel, 60, and his super-talkative child bride were on Oprah last year, I could tell that Katie, 27, didn’t get along with Joel’s 23 year-old daughter, Alexa Ray. Oprah asked Katie about her relationship with Alexa and she didn’t really answer the question, demurring graciously to say “Alexa is really a special person to me. She was my maid of honor in my wedding actually, and I’m always impressed by her. She has so much talent and grace. She’s just really special.”
Now that Billy and Katie have announced their impending divorce after five years of marriage, Alexa says she knew it was coming. In her statement she doesn’t sound all that broken up over it:
Billy Joel’s split from wife Katie came as no surprise to Alexa Ray Joel, the music man’s 23-year-old daughter with Christie Brinkley.
“I have a pretty good woman’s intuition, so I could tell,” Alexa told PEOPLE at the sixth annual Wayuu Taya Foundation Gala at the Stephan Weiss Studio in New York City Wednesday night. “I know my dad very well.”
The couple announced their separation in a statement June 17 after nearly five years of marriage. Joel says she first heard the news from her dad.
“He was the first person to talk to me,” says Alexa. “Of course, being who he is, you can’t just trust everybody. I like knowing that my father can come to me.”
Despite her parents’ troubled marriage record, Alexa says has hardly sworn off the idea of one day getting hitched herself – although she dispels rumors of a romance with John Mayer. “I would love to get married. Having seen what I’ve seen, sure I have a different perspective on marriage, but I’m a true romantic, and I will be having a wedding at one point.”
Meanwhile, Joel says she stands behind her dad: “He’s a strong man. He’ll get through this, and I’m going to help him.”
[From People]
Can you imagine if one of your parents remarried someone who was just a few years older than you? That’s got to be an awkward situation. In Katie and Billy Joel’s Oprah interview, Katie definitely seemed to have the dominant personality and did most of the talking. She claimed their relationship worked despite the over 30 year age difference because “He has this job that’s allowed him to be really immature for a long time – rock star, and I happen to be more mature for my age so we meet somewhere in the middle.” It’s not surprising that it didn’t last. I only wonder if we’ll hear more about their troubled marriage when their divorce proceeds. We sure heard plenty of explosive details when Billy’s ex, Christie Brinkley, divorced her last husband.
Alexa Ray Joel is shown on 6/17/09. Katie Lee Joel and Billy Joel are shown in 2007. Credit: WENN.com
I wonder what her prenup allows her?
Of course she knew. My dad’s been married 4 times and the last two times I could totally tell when things were heading for the gutters even before my dad told me. A pattern develops and as the one who’s been there for each divorce, the kid starts to see the pattern and recognize the tell-tale signs. Her relationship with his wife had little or nothing to do with it.
I feel bad for Alexa Ray. Her mother is one of the most beautiful models & she looks exactly like her dad. Thats gotta sux. She did however get his vocal skills so thats good!! She is not a cute girl tho.
I disagree dudewtf. I think she’s gorgeous. Not the vanilla girl next door type her mother is, of course. She looks like a combination of French, Italian, Greek, Turkish and Lebanese. Love it.
Aww – she’s not classically beautiful or anything but I thinks she’s an attractive girl.
Alexa has a unique beauty- I think she has a fascinating face. Christie Brinkley has a bland, boring beauty.
@ dudewtf : No, she looks nothing like her mother – so what? She looks beautiful in those pix and she seems to have a lot of class.. you sound like a douche.
She has beautiful hair and skin, bet she’s stunning in person.
yeah, she does look JUST like her dad but I think his looks work on her.
no, she’s not beautiful in the “conventional” sense of the word, but I think she has beautiful skin, hair and her eyes are just gorgeous. I’ll bet she’s got a great smile, too.
Maybe she could become an US Weekley writer, predicting the imminent demise of celebrity relationships…
@ Sarah
Billy Joel’s actual heritage of German-Jewish and English-Jewish stock. So Alexa is half Jewish, half “vanilla”.
Personally, I think Christie Brinkley has a magical smile and is obviously a beautiful woman. I think Alexa is attractive as well, and if she wasn’t Christie’s daughter people would say she was a cute girl. It’s hard to compare their looks because they do look so different. Both are attractive in their own ways.
when she was younger I felt really bad for her. it must be hard growing up bug-eyed and compared to Christie.
Alexa is really growing into her look, I think. Super-models always talk about how goofy they looked growing up. Alexa is starting to grow on me and I think as she matures and grows into her face and body, she’ll be beautiful.
..
William Joel pft. I read that 3 times thinking I should know who that was. Duh. (I wonder if she cried out in passion for William Bradley or Benjamin Geza)(yeah Benjamin Geza Affleck-Boldt, I looked it up)
I don’t think anyone is surprised by this break-up.
She looks so much like Giada DeLaurentis. I think Alexa is adorable.
What a homely woman.
that’s pretty closed minded to say that dark haired, exotic looking women aren’t attractive because they’re not the typical blond haired blue eyed models. i dunno where you live, but here in california we have a lot of foreigners (including myself) who rock their own exotic appeal… and believe it or not, lots of people are into it because it’s different…
and to add… this is exactly what i’m talking about… men marry women much younger than themselves all the time and nobody talks about the implications on the child… at least not to the extent that they scrutinize maddona’s marriage… this scenerio is just so common and the double standards bugs the hell out of me.
I’ve ne’er heard her music but she is said to be quite talented. I remember her as a kid… she has grown into a really beautiful woman and more importantly, seems very comfortable with her looks (e’en when standing next to Christie). Alexa – STAY away from that cheeseball John Mayer!
fizXgirl314- Nobody is saying she isnt cute b/c of her strong exotic appeal. I personally dont think she has an exotic look to her. I just dont think her face is that cute. It has NOTHING to do w/ the fact that her hair isnt blonde!! I think she would still be unattractive w/ blonde, red or green hair. Her FACE is what i dont think its that cute. Im not saying shes a ugly creature-like beast. Im saying not that cute. Talented as heck…yes.
Geez people get so bend outta shape over others opinions!!
i think she is very cute and quirky looking. kind of like betty boop. she has a nice voice, too, and seems normal enough. at least she hasn’t been flashing her cootch, getting arrested for DUIs and shown up in a reality show.
You know, justifying a 60-year-old man suffering some sort of celebrity arrested development that makes him more fit for a relationship with a 27-year-old woman makes the reality of the relationship even more skeevy. So, growing the hell up isn’t an option? Honestly, if my Dad married a woman four years older than me, I’d be furious. Especially since I doubt he’d want me to be with someone 30 years older!
Her looks are irrelevant. She’s not trying to be a super-model. She’s being a singer/songwriter, not a pop-star.
dudewtf…of course Alexa’s gorgeous! What are you talking about?!
Anyway, SO glad Billy Joel is getting rid of that twat, Katie Lee…what a golddigger and brat. SHE’s the one who is immature…saying that Billy Joel has this job that’s allowed him to remain immature! He’s a talented musician and thoughtful lyricist…drinker or not!
She is beautiful, like both her parents
she’s beautiful in the eye of this beholder 🙂
Alexa is really growing into her looks. She was unattractive as a teen but now looks great. I suspect she may have had her nose tweaked. Anyway, she is turning out to be quite the looker.
I think she is quite pretty.
Alexa Ray may have her dad’s looks but she has her mother’s smile – life’s not all bad.
I don’t think Katie’s answer to Oprah was gracious. She’s 4 years older than Alexa and she’s talking about her like her much older relative… “a special person to me…I’m always impressed by her… so much talent… really special.” Condesending more like it. The only way Katie Lee got on Oprah in the first place was by promising to have Billy come on and perform.
She’s not cookie-cutter pretty, she’s more than that. And it may be presumptuous to say but I bet her most beautiful years are ahead of her. I’m thirty-five and I’ve seen for myself how some friends bloomed at sixteen while others look better now than they ever did in high school-aging process be damned! (And I’m from middle-class Bronx- cosmetic surgery is not really a factor). I think Alexa is one of these types. Her best years are ahead of her- but I find her stunning now, too.
I read somewhere that Billy and Christy split up because he wouldn’t have sex with her. Why? She’s freakin’ Christy Brinkley!
She looks like Christal Khalil from Young and the Restless.
It must be hell to be the daughter of Christie Brinkley and look like Billy Joel. Nature cheated on Alexa!
I asked my 9 year old because I could not decide and he said she was creepy looking! lol
She’s stunning. Not in a classically beautiful way but I bet she turns heads when she walks into a room.
That Katie Lee chick gives me the creeps! Her eyes are hardened and her face is shiny like one of those plastic surgery babes gone wrong.
Alexa is pretty, but it does look like she’s had an eyebrow lift. Don’t do anything else, girl, if that’s true, because you are beautiful just the way you are.
Funny, the very first thought that popped into my head when I saw the header pic was “Oh wow, she really grew into her looks, she’s beautiful!”
Thank God my dad married someone who was not young enough to be one of my siblings. SO effin’ creepy. And so TRANSPARENT. Like, WTF Billy Joel?! LOL
I can’t believe what jerks people can be. She’s FAR from unattractive (a lot of men don’t like the Barbie look), she’s got money and talent, parents who love her, she’s reportedly very close to her mom, she’s not an addict, she’s not out courting the paps, looking for attention. She’s not flashing her skivvies, passed out in the gutter. She seems like an intelligent, mature young woman of 23.
How could anyone say that she’s unattractive? I think she is quite pretty.
I think Alexa is very beautiful and exotic. On top of that, she’s very talented, has a great voice.
I like her “realness”. She doesn’t appear to be a phony LoHan wannabe. Very leveraged her parents celebrity doing her own music in small gigs.
Alexa is very beautiful…She has a bump on her nose and appears to have embraced her looks as God given and seems very comfortable in her own skin. She hasn’t given in to breast implants, nose job, etc..That in itself makes her more beautiful.
I really hope Alexa Ray is feeling and doing just Fine now. She’s Beautiful and talented, and we have to hear more songs from her.
She has huge, buggy, droopy eyes which come from her dad. She seems to have much more pronounced features than either of her parents though–which make her seem older than she actually is.
If it were not known who her mother is, no one would ever guess.
Just a caution to other posters on this thread, “vanilla” sounds a bit racist (what would a “vanilla” person be, exactly?) It’s better to just be precise about what you mean to say.
Alexa is gorgeous. I prefer brunettes and she’s an absolute beauty not to mention she’s ballsy and talented. Suit yourself