I Cried for 2 Years After Break-Up: Alexa Ray

When Alexa Ray Joel overdosed on homeopathic aspirin, she wasn’t trying to commit suicide, she just wanted to numb the pain of her first serious break-up. “I was crying every day for two years straight after that,” she says in an interview airing tonight on 20/20, E! reports. “I wasn’t trying to hurt myself, I wasn’t trying to kill myself. I was panicked, I was not thinking clearly.”

“It kind of bothers me that the press calls this an overdose,” she continues. “I have a flair for the dramatic, OK, I'm an artist. I'm a performer. Did I actually want to die? Absolutely not.” The singer—whose first single is titled, appropriately enough, “Notice Me”—also talks about how difficult it is to live up to her parents in both looks (Christie Brinkley) and talent (Billy Joel).