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Alexa Ray Joel opened up to PEOPLE about her reaction to dad Billy Joel’s new HBO documentary
The musician said that it was “really beautiful” for her to watch — and it made her shed some tears
Part two of Billy Joel: And So It Goes dropped on July 25
To Alexa Ray Joel, her parents made “the ultimate dream couple.”
Speaking with PEOPLE about the release of Billy Joel’s two-part HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, the singer — who’s the daughter of Joel and Christie Brinkley — says it was “moving, beyond belief” watching it back.
“There was people messaging me saying that they were in tears. So let alone, for me, reliving my childhood years,” Alexa, 39, who’s featured in the documentary, says.
“I think the world was very enchanted by my parents when they were together. They were like the ultimate dream couple,” she continues.
With her parents, Alexa says that though they couldn’t be more opposite — she loved seeing “how much they complement each other in their differences.”
“Opposites attract. My mom being this beautiful model, and extrovert, and very sunny and outgoing. My dad is definitely more of an introvert, which I would say, I’m more introverted too,” she says.
Alexa adds, “It was really, really beautiful and emotional for me to watch. I cried, my mom cried.”
In the documentary, the “Vienna” singer, 76, and Brinkley, 71 — who met in 1983 and were together for 11 years — recall the early days of their relationship.
“Here I am dating this beautiful supermodel and… me? I’m from Hicksville. What am I doing with her? What’s she doing with me? But that was a very productive time for me,” Joel said in the film. “I wrote a lot of songs for her. She was a muse.”
He continued, “It was like being a teenager all over again. Experiencing those same emotions that I had when I was first discovering romance and love.”
Though their first few years together were “so much fun,” their relationship went south by 1989. As seen in his single “I Go to Extremes,” Brinkley said in the doc that the song reflects Joel “boomeranging between being a family man and tortured artist” who’d often disappear in the middle of the night to drink amid his “unraveling” life.
The exes divorced in 1994 after nine years of marriage but remained great friends and co-parents. In August 2024, Joel serenaded Brinkley with “Uptown Girl” during a concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
The “New York State of Mind” singer has been happily married to wife Alexis since 2015. The couple share daughters Della, 10 this month, and Remy, 7 — and in a recent cover story Joel told PEOPLE he’s “really enjoying this time in my life.”
In the documentary, the “We Didn’t Start the Fire” singer reflected on the first time he met Alexis — and said she wasn’t impressed by “the whole Billy Joel thing.”
“When you meet someone who captures your imagination, it renews, it revitalizes,” he said in the film. “I remember the first time I met Alexis, we went to my house, and I wanted to play the piano for her. It’s a form of communication for me.”
Joel said he drew from a famous scene in the Marilyn Monroe film The Seven-Year Itch, where the character trying to woo Monroe’s character plays a song by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
“I’m playing that and she’s completely unimpressed with it, totally. She couldn’t care less what I’m playing and I’m thinking, ‘Oh okay, this isn’t working,’” Joel said. “She was very unimpressed with the whole Billy Joel thing, which impressed me. Because I thought, ‘OK, maybe she’s just here because she likes me, not the Billy Joel guy.’”
Billy Joel: And So It Goes, which reflects on the singer’s life, career and music, is streaming on HBO Max.
Read the original article on People
