United Kingdom, April 30 -- Christie Brinkley is pleased that she and Billy Joel started out as friends.

The 71-year-old model tied the knot with 'Uptown Girl' singer Billy, 75, in 1985 but when she met him, he had been dating her friend Elle Macpherson, but they "immediately" hit it off with one another.

She told Fox News Digital: "Elle and I met Billy on the same night, and that was the night that I thought I know I want to be friends with this guy forever, but I had other things going on in my life, but I knew I wanted to keep him as a friend. We hit it off immediately. I mean, immediately.

"And then when he came back into my life and he was so wonderful and I started to see him differently. And so I think it was really great to sta...