Christie Brinkley Cheers Billy Joel After NPH Diagnosis
Oh, fabulous—celebrity exes cheering on rock legends is apparently the weekend’s hot ticket. Christie Brinkley, at age 71 and far removed from her 1994 split with Billy Joel, couldn’t resist jumping into the spotlight again to salute her former husband’s latest health hiccup. On May 24, Brinkley took to Instagram with a video mash-up of concert clips showing her and daughter Sailor Brinkley Cook belting out “Piano Man,” complete with her signature eye-roll-inducing pep talk. She dubbed him “OUR piano man,” begged him to rest up from his new NPH (normal pressure hydrocephalus) diagnosis, and insisted that “an arena of strangers” morphs into “a living room full of friends” when Joel hits those opening chords. She even apologized for not being able to find a “cute photo” of him and their firstborn, Alexa Ray Joel, but made up for it with sappy lines like “we all hope you’re feeling alright!” If you squint, it almost reads as genuine concern rather than a perfectly timed PR bump.
Joel announced on May 23 that his world tour is taking an indefinite rain check as he undergoes targeted physical therapy and follows doctors’ orders to sit out the stage lights. NPH, as you’ll recall, means excess cerebrospinal fluid is sloshing around in his brain ventricles—fascinating bedside reading, right? Meanwhile, their 39-year-old daughter Alexa Ray offered her own black-and-white tribute hours earlier, quoting her dad’s 1993 lullaby with “We love you and we got you, Pop!” Clearly, family solidarity is trending harder than Joel’s glittery white suit these days.
Brinkley also used this opportunity to plug her memoir Uptown Girl, where she recalls meeting a sunburned, oil-slicked Joel behind a dive-bar piano in St. Barts back in 1983. Apparently, nothing says “romance” like cranberry-red skin and an ’80s “Long Island bubble” hairdo. But she insists those cheesy old-fashioned gestures—flowers, notes, poems, songs written “just for her”—were downright irresistible. Fast-forward to 2024, and she’s still applauding that same man who spun stadiums into swaying living rooms, now swapping backstage tales for bed-rest orders.
No shocker here: exes rally for publicity, fans rally for nostalgia, and Joel’s medical updates remind us that even legends need a time-out. So there you have it—another round of glitzy goodwill with a side of memoir promotion. Nothing shocking here, folks. Let’s all act surprised.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and People Magazine, Dotdash Meredith
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
