Singer/songwriter Alexa Ray Joel, is resting, in stable condition at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, after swallowing a handful of sleeping pills in an apparent suicide attempt Saturday (Dec. 5) afternoon.
The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays often amplify personal problems especially when they deal with family or relationships. Suicide attempts traditionally rise during this time of year.
Alexa, the daughter of pop singer Billy Joel and former supermodel Christie Brinkley, has had trouble lately dealing with a break up with her long-time boyfriend, an inability to build a new relationship and ongoing issues with her parents.
Alexa was caught in the middle of a wrenching divorce between her mother and architect Peter Cook in the summer of 2008. She was forced to take the stand to testify and related how Cook constantly criticized and belittled her.
As for her mother, Alexa described her as “very loving, but very idealistic about things.”
“Christie loves Alexa, but she can be tough on her. She’s always on her about being overweight,” a friend told The New York Daily News.
Added another family friend: “Her mother was a supermodel. Her father is one of the biggest pop stars in America. She’s trying to find her place in the world.”
Her father has been through multiple marriages, has had a drinking problem, suffered from bouts of depression and also once tried to kill himself when he was young.
“I was suicidal,” Joel told Details magazine last year. “I was 21. It’s a tough age. Things hit you really hard. I just figured the world didn’t need another failed musician.
“You take yourself so seriously – you’ve got your head so far up your a– you can’t see straight,” he said.
Brinkley and Joel married in 1984, and divorced in 1994.
“Alexa is stable. Her doctors are assessing her needs and that’s all we can say at this moment,” said Claire Mercuri, Alexa’s and Billy’s personal publicist. Joel was conscious at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and is expected recover.
On her MySpace page, Alexa recently groused about her own relationship problems, and listed her mood as “forgotten.”
“Just Men. UGH!!! MEN!!!!,” she wrote.
I don’t like dating!!! Wish I could be in a relationship again without having to date… I HATE going out!! I’m a homebody and a workaholic… I don’t like going out and drinking to meet men!!! I always have to drag myself out the door to get up the motivation to go out, and when I do go out, I don’t meet anybody!!!,” she wrote in an Aug. 11 post.
“Is anybody else finding it a difficult ‘dating world’ out there? I’m so terrible at dating– I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it! And I HATE the game-playing! Can’t stand it. I live in the greatest city in the world and I can’t seem to meet an interesting guy who also happens to be NICE,” she wrote.
Medics were called to Joel’s Bethune St. apartment in the West Village at 12:21 p.m. this afternoon, according to police. A female caller told a 911 operator that Joel had taken several pills and wanted to die, The New York Post reported, citing sources.
Alexa Joel is a singer and songwriter like her father as well as a talented pianist. She is well known playing around New York and is one of artists scheduled to appear in a tree-lighting ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday (Dec. 10).
Her latest single “Invisible,” according to her MySpace page, “tells the story of disappointment over losing love and self-esteem and finding female empowerment.”
Joel told medics she had taken eight pills and was having trouble breathing, according to Fire Department officials.
A source told the Daily News Alexa has been an emotional wreck since breaking up with her boyfriend, ex-bandmate Jimmy Riot. “She has battled depression,” the source said. “She had a rough breakup with a boyfriend, a musician in her band, several years ago. It was her first love.”
“This may be a cry for help,” the friend said.
