Mick Jagger’s Complicated Love Life Revisited in New Rolling Stones Biography
Mick Jagger’s romantic history has attracted almost as much attention as his decades-long career with the Rolling Stones, and a new biography revisits some of the relationships, affairs and personal turmoil that followed the singer throughout his rise to fame.
In The Rolling Stones: The Biography, author Bob Spitz recounts Jagger’s relationships with women including Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall and L’Wren Scott, drawing on previous accounts and recollections from people connected to the band.
Among the book’s claims is that Jagger became involved with Anita Pallenberg, who was then in a relationship with his Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards.
Jagger and Anita Pallenberg’s Performance Controversy
Jagger and Pallenberg appeared together in the 1970 film Performance, playing characters involved in an intimate relationship.
According to Spitz, their connection reportedly extended beyond acting. Quoting a Rolling Stones employee, the author claims footage captured by Pallenberg on a handheld camera documented the pair together and was later edited into a separate adult short film.
Pallenberg subsequently addressed the relationship in her private journals, excerpts of which appeared in the 2024 documentary Catching Fire.
At the time, Jagger was involved with actress and singer Marianne Faithfull.
Faithfull herself had previously been involved with Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Brian Jones. Spitz writes that her interest shifted toward Jagger after seeing him perform, with Faithfull describing him as a “dancing god.”
Chrissie Shrimpton and Marianne Faithfull
Before his relationship with Faithfull developed, Jagger had been living with model Chrissie Shrimpton.
According to the biography, Shrimpton attempted suicide with sleeping pills after discovering Jagger’s involvement with Faithfull. While Shrimpton was hospitalized, Spitz claims Jagger changed the locks on their shared apartment and canceled shopping accounts he had maintained for her.
Shrimpton previously discussed the overdose herself in a 2012 interview with the Daily Mail.
“It wasn’t just attention-seeking or a cry for help,” she said. “I really wanted to die. I thought my life was over.”
Jagger’s relationship with Faithfull continued, and he proposed to her in 1968. She declined.
Their years together were also marked by serious difficulties surrounding Faithfull’s drug use. While pregnant with Jagger’s child, she was using heroin and later suffered a miscarriage at seven months.
A Six-Day Coma in Australia
In 1969, Faithfull accompanied Jagger to Australia while he was filming Ned Kelly.
During their stay in a Sydney hotel, she took 150 Tuinal sleeping pills, collapsed and fell into a coma for six days.
“It was touch and go for six days,” Spitz writes.
According to the biography, Faithfull’s drug use continued after she returned to the United States. Spitz claims Jagger became increasingly reluctant to see her in that condition and was also involved with other women during the period.
Meanwhile, another significant relationship had begun.
Marsha Hunt and the Birth of Jagger’s First Child
Spitz writes that Jagger was having a “torrid affair” with 23-year-old actress Marsha Hunt, who was appearing in the West End production of Hair in London.
Hunt later gave birth to Jagger’s first child, daughter Karis.
By 1970, however, another woman had entered his life. Jagger met Nicaraguan-born Bianca Pérez-Mora Macías and quickly became enamored with her.
The couple married in 1971 while Bianca was four months pregnant with their daughter, Jade.
Their hastily organized wedding attracted an extraordinary collection of music stars, with guests including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Pete Townshend and Stephen Stills.
The marriage did not last. Bianca filed for divorce in 1978, citing adultery.
Jerry Hall and More Allegations of Infidelity
Around the end of his marriage to Bianca, Jagger became involved with American model Jerry Hall, who had been engaged to Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry.
Spitz recounts an unusual early encounter in which Jagger invited Hall and Ferry to dinner before making his interest in Hall unmistakably clear.
Jagger and Hall eventually held an unofficial marriage ceremony in Bali in 1990. During their years together, they welcomed four children: Elizabeth, James, Georgia and Gabriel.
But allegations of infidelity continued to follow Jagger.
The biography claims he had an affair with Italian model Carla Bruni, who later became France’s first lady after marrying Nicolas Sarkozy.
Bruni has previously characterized what happened between herself and Jagger as a “fling.”
“I was in my twenties, so I wasn’t thinking about a relationship,” she told Christopher Andersen, author of the biography Mick. “There were so many other women with Mick. I don’t think I was responsible [for his split from Hall].”
It was another relationship, however, that ultimately contributed to the end of Jagger and Hall’s partnership.
The Relationship That Ended Jagger and Hall’s Years Together
Jagger became involved with Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez, who became pregnant with his child.
Their son Lucas, Jagger’s seventh child, was subsequently born, and Hall ended her relationship with the Rolling Stones singer shortly after news of the pregnancy emerged.
Jagger later entered a long-term relationship with stylist and fashion designer L’Wren Scott.
They remained together for several years until Scott died by suicide in 2014. Her death left Jagger devastated.
Jagger’s Life With Melanie Hamrick
In the years since Scott’s death, Jagger has built a relationship with American ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick, 38.
The couple share a son, Deveraux, who is 9.
Now 83, Jagger remains one of rock music’s most enduring figures, but The Rolling Stones: The Biography revisits how his extraordinary professional success unfolded alongside a personal life marked by high-profile romances, allegations of infidelity and complicated relationships spanning several decades.