On Sunday, Aug. 3, the singer-songwriter — daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley — will serve as the celebrity grand marshal at the 10th annual Race of Hope to Defeat Depression in Southampton Village, hosted by the Hope for Depression Research Foundation.
Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of the event, the Seven Years singer, 39, called the mission “very personal.”
“Depression runs in my family. I’ve seen my father struggle with it. I’ve seen my grandmother struggle. And I’ve experienced it as well,” she says. “I’m doing better these days — exercise really helps.”
She goes on to describe depression as a lingering presence. “I’ve always struggled with it. I sort of describe depression as feeling like you have this non-existential sort of weight,” she explains. “It’s not literal, you can’t see it. But it’s just this weight in the back of your mind, where things just feel heavy.”
“I don’t know that I would say I have chronic depression,” she adds. “It kind of comes and goes.”
Joel has long been candid about her experience with mental health and emotional healing. Reflecting on her upbringing, she notes that her father “struggled with depression his whole life,” which is why speaking out feels essential to her.
“And his mother — my wonderful grandmother, Nanny, who I miss so much — also struggled with bipolar disorder,” she shares. “It was undiagnosed at the time, because this was back in the ’50s, when mental health wasn’t fully understood. There was a very negative stigma around it. But it was later discovered to be bipolar disorder.”
In Billy Joel: And So It Goes, the recent HBO docuseries chronicling her father’s life and music, the Piano Man artist, 76, opens up about his emotional challenges — something Alexa sees as both painful and powerful.
“He had to go through so much, and so much struggle,” she says. “But there’s also a lot of beauty that came out of that — with all of these incredible songs. I think it makes him so much more relatable as a man who has had these struggles and been transparent about them.”
“It’s really a story of resilience. It shows people that even if you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom, you can still rise. I always joke with my dad, ‘Are you like a cat? You’ve had nine lives.’ He’s been through heartbreak and loss, but also so many wonderful moments.”
“I think it just shows what a survivor he is,” she says.
As for the upcoming race — which last year raised over $500,000 for critical mental health research — Alexa says she’s proud to be part of it.
“Ending the negative stigma around mental health has always been a huge priority for me,” she says. “If they ask me to be there, I’m there. I’m just excited to be with a community that’s so supportive of this.”
