I find it amazing that Billy Joel is still friends with his first wife:
Elizabeth’s Love For Money
It was never a secret that Elizabeth Weber had a great affinity for money. While Billy Joel was madly in love with Weber and drawing inspiration from her for his music, Weber was never shy about asking for her own financial gain from the songs he would pen down for her. There is one particular incident that showed how much she wanted to benefit from her husband’s career.
On one of her birthdays, he played her his new song ‘Just the way you are’ to which she replied “Do I get the publishing, too?” and she was serious about it. She was already entitled to half his wealth and was also taking her earning cuts for working as his manager.
When the couple filed for divorce in 1982, Joel was hopeful of reconciliation and went to buy her everything she wanted. This included a
$4 million townhouse on the Upper East Side where she continued to live with her son after the divorce until 1997. But his plans to win her back came to a halt after Joel got involved in a motorcycle accident and injured both of his hands.
With his music career in jeopardy, he thought that his wife would be his support system. But alas that was shattered when she visited him in the hospital with a contract in her hand. Weber allegedly asked him to sign everything he had over to her. Remembering the incident, he said:
“I may have acted like an idiot a time or two, but I’m not a complete idiot.”. He then added, “That really killed it right there and there”.
