How did Billy Joel feel after his third divorce? Takeaways from his new HBO Max documentary

Billy Joel: And So It Goes, the Piano Man's two-part documentary, premiered its first installment on HBO Max on July 18, 2025. A week later, on July 25, the second part followed, highlighting more of the American singer-songwriter's life on and off the stage, music, and struggles.

One of the things the Piano Man opened up about in the documentary was how getting divorced for the third time made him feel. Billy Joel said that divorcing his third wife, Katie Lee, made him feel like a three-time loser who feared that he would get old and die alone.

"I was going through another divorce. Three times. A three-time loser. And the fear of being alone again, dying alone, not having that person in my life anymore... and getting old," he said.

He also explained that he struggled with alcohol abuse during his marriage to Lee, and he used the same coping mechanism after the divorce, adding:

"So I was drinking again, just to kind of ease that pain. So yeah, it was kind of a lost time."

Joel and Lee met at the Peninsula Hotel in New York in 2002. They ended up tying the knot two years later but eventually divorced in 2009. In Billy Joel: And So It Goes, he also clarified previous theories and rumors about Lee cheating on him with some guy, calling it "a bunch of bullsh*t." He explained that the separation was because they "drifted apart from each other."

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Billy Joel explains how his fourth and current wife changed his perspective after his third divorce

Around the same time his third divorce was finalized, Billy Joel met the woman who would become his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick. It was another chance meeting at a restaurant in Huntington, New York, while they were with each of their friends. The singer-songwriter took the chance and introduced himself, and left her with his number.

In a New Yorker profile, published in 2014, Roderick admitted that he wasn't smitten with Joel during their first meeting. However, the singer-songwriter felt different. He said in his documentary:

"When you meet someone who captures your imagination, it renews, it revitalizes."

At the time, he admitted that he wasn't sure if he was ready to embark on a new romantic relationship as his marriage had just ended. There was a part of him who refused to go through all that heartache again. However, something had shifted in him after meeting his would-be fourth wife.

"But all of a sudden, something happened. Something popped. And I was open to it," Billy Joel said.

They started dating not too long after meeting, and soon after that, Roderick moved with Joel into his Centre Home Island. They eventually got married in 2015, and the singer shared what their relationship was like. He said that Roderick was a successful executive at Morgan Stanley at the time. Meanwhile, he wasn't eager to work, so he stayed home and made it a habit to cook and serve her dinner.

Billy Joel and Alexis Roderick became parents to two daughters, Della and Remy, and they've been married for ten years now.

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Both parts of Billy Joel: And So It Goes are now streaming on HBO Max.

Edited by Ahana Mukhopadhyay