By the 2002, Joel try once more deeply disheartened and you may sipping heavily. He was traveling with Elton John, and another evening had an onstage crisis within Backyard, randomly shouting away famous battle sites: “Bunker Mountain! Antietam!” (In 2011, John in public areas castigated Joel towards their consuming. )

Between 2002 and you will 2004, Joel got about three car accidents with the Enough time Island, after smashing on a house. He later blamed crappy roadway lights, local animals, their badly developed Citroen and you can nine/eleven. The guy checked on the rehab but don’t ordered into it. “The fact is, I love to drink,” Joel advised Schruers. “Possibly an excessive amount of.”

The only bright destination is Katie Lee, a college girl off Kansas exactly who he’d acquired during the the fresh reception of your own Peninsula Resort. Just after graduating, she went toward Joel’s house regarding Hamptons, and in 2004, they partnered. Joel was 55, Lee 23 – simply four years more than his daughter, Alexa.

Shortly after a period at Betty Ford, Lee – by herself an aspiring culinary star – advised him to acquire right back from the road, and he began to tackle live again. During the 2008, if you find yourself travel which have Elton John, Joel leftover watching images from Lee at premieres and you will gallery open positions – and something specifically, out-of her dance directly having a separate people during the Art Basel within the Miami.

Because relationships unraveled, Joel kept away vow. The guy advised Lee he wanted to check out a therapist. She first started talking about chairs. “I came across, ‘It will not happens. The audience is more . . . ‘Cause I am a vintage man today, a prone guy. Usually do not accomplish that so you can a vintage people.’ ”

It separated in 2009. Today, Joel stays in Oyster Bay together with his girlfriend of five years, a great 33-year-dated previous hedge funder. Continuarea →