Elizabeth Weber: Wife #1
Joel met his first wife, Elizabeth, in 1970, through his buddy and bandmate, Jon Small. Elizabeth was actually married to Small before that, and they even had a son together. But Joel was smitten. “She wasn’t like a lot of the other girls I knew at that time who had taken home and cooking classes,” Joel told Schruers.
Billy Joel and wife Elizabeth Weber circa 1981 in New York City. Photo by Robin Platzer/Images/Getty Images
To Joel, Elizabeth was intelligent and not scared to speak her mind, and more interestingly, she was seductive. “Almost like a European-type. Not a typical American girl.” And yes, their relationship started out as an affair. When Small found out, Elizabeth left them both and disappeared for weeks. That’s when Joel started to contemplate ending his life.