Alexa Ray Joel - Personal Life

Personal Life

On December 5, 2009 Joel ingested a quantity of Traumeel, a homeopathic alternative to ibuprofen. Joel is reported to have taken "several pills"; an NYU Medical Center toxicologist said the drug has "no active ingredient" and indicated that it was essentially impossible to overdose ("basically you'd be taking more of nothing"). Interviewed six months later by ABC News, Joel described herself as having been "distraught and in so much pain" after the end of a four-year romantic relationship but not wanting to bother anyone since it was the holiday season. "I wasn't trying to kill myself. I was panicked. I was not thinking clearly at all. ... I was in so much pain and I just wanted to numb it." "The intent was to calm me down because I was having a panic attack."

Joel told People magazine that her April 2010 rhinoplasty operation came after five years of consideration, and was to correct a deviated septum and to feel better about herself, Joel having been "self-conscious of pictures taken from the side." Joel explained that her surgery waited until she "was in a better place" than at the time of her Traumeel incident four months earlier, further stating that she's "done with plastic surgery."

In July 2010, ABC News' 20/20 interviewed Joel about "moving out of (the) shadows" of her "two megastar parents," and about recovery from her December 2009 crisis with depression. While Joel acknowledged it had been "scary" to be "compared to a rock and roll legend," her confidence was said to be "helped along by a wider acceptance" by others. Saying "I'm not a blond girl with blue eyes and that's fine," Joel added that Ultimark Products' approaching her to be the face of Prell shampoo in print and TV ads, was a "big confidence booster." Describing her overcoming the relationship dependence that triggered her December 2009 Traumeel incident, Joel said "I've got to get a new band, ... whole new songs, ...whole new career plan. Everything changed after that incident."