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Christie Brinkley announced on Tuesday, February 4 that she will be publishing a memoir, and the title reveals that she does not plan to be shy about her connection to ex-husband Billy Joel.
Brinkley, 71, has titled her memoir Uptown Girl after the classic 1983 tune, for which she appeared in the music video. Brinkley and Joel, 75, were married from 1985 to 1994, and they share a daughter, Alexa Ray Joel. According to an announcement from publisher Harper Influence, the memoir will detail “her whirlwind career, her four tumultuous marriages — including her heartbreaking divorce from Billy Joel — and the harrowing experiences (a 1994 helicopter crash) that almost cut her life short.”
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The supermodel, who has been married four times, explained her goals for the book in her statement. “I wrote ‘Uptown Girl‘ to inspire readers to create the life they want, which is what I’ve always tried to do,” she said. Brinkley added that she hoped readers would do this “not through fortune or fame, but by saying yes to adventure and trying to find the magic in every moment, no matter how big or how small.” The book will be available on April 29.
While the book’s description called the couple’s breakup “heartbreaking,” Brinkley and Billy have maintained a friendship in the years since they divorced. Alexa and Billy attended opening night of Chicago on Broadway when Brinkley took on the lead role of Roxie Hart in 2011, and in a 2014 New Yorker interview, the model said of her ex, “I’ve always adored him. I just couldn’t live with him anymore.”
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Brinkley’s other marriages were to French artist Jean-François Allaux from 1973 to 1981, real estate developer Richard Taubman from 1994 to 1995, and architect Peter Halsey Cook from 1996 to 1998. She also dated another famous singer, John Mellencamp, from 2015 to 2016.
