Billy Joel’s 1st Wife Speaks Out About Their Marriage — and Why She Left

Billy Joel and Elizabeth Weber’s love story didn’t have a fairy tale start or even a happy ending.

But in between the beginning and the end, the couple got married, forged a powerful partnership that catapulted his career and, according to Weber, created something that was “greater than the sum of the parts.”

And that’s just a small part of what the “Piano Man’s” ex-wife had to say about him and their union in the first installment of HBO’s two-part documentary, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes.”

Billy Joel and first wife Elizabeth Weber in New York, 1981. (Getty Images)

Weber and Joel first met in the late 1960s, as he was best friends and bandmates with Jon Small, Weber’s then-husband. In 1969, for the sake of musical convenience and financial benefit, Joel moved in with the couple and their young son, Sean.

Soon Joel and Weber found themselves falling for each other.

“When you just find someone you’re comfortable with, who can finish your sentences and knows what you’re thinking without saying anything, sometimes it’s a slow build,” Weber explained in the documentary.

But things changed quickly after they started an affair. Joel confessed his betrayal to Small, and for a time, Weber left both men.

In her absence, a broken-hearted and deeply depressed Joel penned a number of songs about her, and he sent her the recordings.

“Hearing those songs was overwhelming,” she recalled. “It was stunning that he could accomplish something like that. And so, it had an impact.”

The former lovers got back together, and Weber became the supportive partner Joel had long lacked. Suddenly he had a fire to launch his career in earnest, with her help.

In 1973, pair were married in a courthouse ceremony. And her efforts to help bring his music to the masses led her to take on the role of his manager, too. In fact, she created an entire management group to ensure his success.

Weber took on record company execs, producers and venues to make sure he made it, and it worked. But she wasn't always rewarded for the results.

"The man is strong and assertive, it’s all good," she noted in the documentary. "But if you’re a woman who makes a decision that people don’t like, the gendered language comes out."

And she heard plenty of it.

In the documentary, even Joel admitted, "it must have been hard being married to me."

Ultimately, Weber agreed.

"Everyone thinks that fame is something special, and there was a lot of nice things about the life we had, but the sense of humor of the gods is fantastic," Weber said in the wake of Joel's career trajectory. "Because you get this, and this is what you pay for it."

So as Joel’s musical success soared, it created a strain on both his professional and personal relationship with Weber. To counter that, Weber dropped out as his manager. But Joel’s lifestyle of an indulgent rocker pushed her even further away.

Billy Joel's ex-wife, Elizabeth Weber, and her son, producer Sean Weber-Small on June 4, 2025 in NYC. (Charly Triballeau/AFP / Getty Images)

Eventually, even joining the superstar performer on tour became out of the question. Weber couldn’t stand to see what alcohol and drugs was doing to Joel and his band. And as a mother, she couldn’t risk continuing to expose her son to it.

The only time she and Joel spent together after that was when he wasn’t on the road — and even when he wasn’t touring, he hit the road in another way. He paired his love of booze with a new passion for motorcycling, a move that frightened Weber.

He even wrote a song about her concern after one close call — “You May Be Right.”

In it, he sang, “Even rode my motorcycle in the rain / And you told me not to drive / But I made it home alive / So you said that only proves that I’m insane.”

But that 1981 track, from his “Glass Houses” album, wasn’t the end of the subject.

Billy Joel's ex-wife, Elizabeth Weber, attends the Tribeca premiere of "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" on June 4, 2025 in NYC. (Charly Triballeau/AFP / Getty Images)

Months after the song’s release, Joel was in a serious motorcycle accident that left him hospitalized with multiple injuries. For him, it was a scary ordeal. For Weber, it was the final straw.

“I would have stayed,” she said, thinking back on that time and their growing emotional distance. “I would have been able, like so many women before, to make that accommodation for someone you love. But there was no way that I could stand by and watch him kill himself. I just didn’t have that in me.”

Today, Weber still cares for the man she divorced in 1982.

“I still have room in my heart,” she said. “I love Bill. I always will.”