Billy Joel is marking another milestone for his middle daughter. On Wednesday, August 12, the 77-year-old singer shared a rare photo on Instagram of Della Rose in celebration of her 11th birthday, showing her in a white dress and sandals, perched on a rock by the water.
He captioned the post simply: “Happy 11th Birthday to our Della Rose!”
Della Rose was born in 2015, Joel’s second daughter and his first with fourth wife Alexis Roderick, the couple’s younger daughter, Remy Anne, arrived two years later.
Joel is also father to Alexa Ray Joel, born in 1985 with ex-wife Christie Brinkley.
This past May, Joel celebrated another milestone for Della Rose, sharing news of her elementary school graduation on Instagram.
“Congratulations to our elementary school graduate! We now have a middle schooler. Mommy and Daddy are beyond proud of all your hard work and determination. Your first day of school seemed like yesterday. Amazing things are in store for this girl.”
Joel has spoken candidly over the years about the experience of raising young children later in life.
In a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, he joked about frequently being mistaken for his daughters’ grandfather at school drop-off.
“I take [them] to school and one of the other parents will go, ‘Oh, your granddaughter’s so cute.’ I still love being a dad. I didn’t know that I would be a father again at this age, but I’m glad I am … They keep you young.”
Joel has also acknowledged that he once doubted whether he’d have more children at all, admitting he initially thought he was “too old.”
But around the release of the HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, he described raising his younger daughters as a joy he approached with real intention, saying: “I have time to be with them … I wanted to make sure that they got everything they needed from me, so I kind of knuckled down and took fatherhood very, very seriously.”
