Alexa Ray Joel Hospitalized After Suicide Attempt

On Saturday afternoon Alexa Ray Joel (23), the daughter of Billy Joel, was taken to St. Vincent’s Medical center after paramedics were called to her Manhattan West Village apartment at 12:24 P.M.

Alexa told paramedics she had taken eight sleeping pills, according to the New York Daily News, and she was complained it was hard to breathe.

Alexa’s publicist, Claire Mercuri, confirmed Alexa was taken to the hospital:

“She was admitted, and doctors are assessing the situation. We have no further comment.”

We haven’t heard yet if Alexa is on a psychiatric hold for an attempted drug overdose suicide attempt.

Bill Joel did not visit his daughter at the hospital in person, but instead talked to her on the phone, saying it would have been a media circus if he would have gone to the hospital. A good father would swim across the ocean to be there for his daughter in her time of need.

Alexa has a lot of difficulty dealing with relationships, and this pill popping incident may have been related to an argument she had with her latest boyfriend.

In August Alexa wrote on her MySpace page:

"UGH!!! MEN!!! Is anybody else finding it a difficult "dating world" out there? I’m so terrible at dating – I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it! And I HATE the game-playing! Can’t stand it."

"I live in the greatest city in the world and I can’t seem to meet an interesting guy who also happens to be NICE. Go figure… "

After her breakup with former bass player Jimmy Riot, Alexa told PEOPLE magazine:

"I can get very dark. I can get very in my own head and depressed as many other artists can. I was crying all day. I thought how am I going to put on a show."

"[But] the minute I got out there, it was the best show. I thought I was going to break down, and suddenly this energy with all the emotion was just pouring out."

Alexa sings and plays piano just like dad, and she has difficulty maintaining healthy relationships just like dad. We hope Alexa gets some relationship counseling to help her avoid emotional break-downs in the future.

In June when dad Billy Joel and his wife Katie Lee were splitting, Alexa says he came to her in his time of need. Alexa said:

"I was the first person that he came to with the news. You can’t just trust everybody, and I like knowing that my father can talk to me in the same way that I come to him. I’m just supporting him right now."

Alexa also said she wants to get married, but because of the problems she and her biological parents have had with the legal contract that is marriage, she will have a wedding without the wedding license or contract:

"I am a true romantic, I would love to get married. The government doesn’t necessarily have to get involved. You can just celebrate your life and have a wedding and have it big and fabulous and not necessarily complicated, with the papers and all that. Having seen what I’ve seen, I’ll be skeptical, sure, but I will be having a wedding."

I’m happy to hear Alexa doesn’t want to add more to her emotional pain by getting married and going through years of divorce court.

It’s really too bad Billy wasn’t physically at his daughter’s side at the hospital, especially when his daughter was there for him when he needed her.

However, today a publicist says Alexa is now staying with her father at one of his homes.