Billy Joel's Eldest Daughter Grew Up To Be Gorgeous Like Her Mom

Being the daughter of an iconic musician and a supermodel can't be easy. Sure, it opens many doors. Having Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley for parents has allowed Alexa Ray Joel to develop her own musical interests and given her a life of opportunities. But it also put an unwanted spotlight on her that caused her to put her singing career on pause for a decade to avoid it. Because Billy's daughter spent a good part of her adulthood away from the public eye, it's easy to forget that he's among the rock stars you didn't know had gorgeous daughters.

Alexa is back now, and she's looking beautiful just like Brinkley. Fans of the Piano Man and the Sports Illustrated model likely remember her as the cute kid with her father's expressive eyes. As an adult, she still has Billy's striking features, but her mother's traits have become more prominent, too. As the 2025 picture below shows, Alexa has Brinkley's smile and high cheekbones. Her facial structure also resembles that of her famous mother. She has her father's brown hair and hazel eyes, but she also takes after Brinkley for sure.

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In 2017, Alexa boldly posed in a bikini for Sports Illustrated next to Brinkley and the model's other daughter, Sailor Lee Brinkley Cook, stepping way out of her comfort zone. She couldn't have been more proud of herself. "This was a lesson in learning to let go, take the plunge, and embrace myself from both the inside AND out — which is something I struggle with each and every day," she wrote on Instagram. But the journey to self-love and acceptance wasn't easy.

When you're the daughter of a famous supermodel, being pretty isn't enough. As good-looking as Alexa Ray Joel may be, she was constantly compared to Christie Brinkley, even though she had never aspired to be a model. The comparisons weren't just casual, either. In 2007, Perez Hilton infamously wrote a vile short blog piece on the then-21-year-old's looks. "She's not that bad, actually, she's just no supermodel," he wrote (via Irish Independent). Alexa didn't stay quiet.

On the now-defunct MySpace (via People), Alexa criticized Hilton for turning her and her mother into some form of rivals when there had never been any competition between them. "I like that I look unique, or more 'exotic' — I don't want to look like everybody else, and I also don't want to look like a supermodel," she wrote. She took it a step further, boasting about her pride in taking after Billy Joel's eyes and lips and even criticizing those who deem him to be ugly. "I think he has a very soulful face," she continued.

It took her a long time, but Alexa reached a place of self-acceptance. That's when she went back to producing music. "I know I'm going to be compared to my mother's beauty and my father's talent, and it takes a lot of internal work — or at least it did for me — to get to a place where I could even feel comfortable getting back in the saddle with music and putting myself out there," she told Yahoo! in 2021.