Mick Jagger spent years making his feelings about marriage remarkably clear.
The Rolling Stones legend once described himself as having a “bohemian” approach to relationships, said marriage was not for him and even dismissed the institution as an “elaborate fantasy.”
More than a decade later, however, his private life has taken an unexpected turn.
Jagger, 82, has been quietly engaged to former ballerina Melanie Hamrick, 38, for around three years — although neither appears to be in any hurry to walk down the aisle.
For fans who remember Jagger’s famously complicated romantic history, the engagement represents an intriguing change for a man who once questioned whether conventional ideas about lifelong commitment made much sense at all.
Jagger Once Said Marriage Was ‘Not For Me’
Jagger discussed his unconventional outlook during a 2010 interview with The New York Times, four years before he met Hamrick.
“I don’t really subscribe to a completely normal view of what relationships should be,” he explained.
Instead, Jagger said he had “a bit more of a bohemian view.”
His thoughts on marriage were even more direct.
“To be honest, I don’t really think much of marriage,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s not a wonderful thing and people shouldn’t do it, but it’s not for me.”
Jagger added that he believed plenty of other people appeared to feel similarly.
“I just think it’s perhaps not quite what it’s cracked up to be,” he continued. “I know it’s an elaborate fantasy.”
The singer even turned to the animal kingdom when explaining why he questioned society’s expectations surrounding relationships, arguing that human rules surrounding monogamy did not necessarily align neatly with animal behavior.
Those comments came after Jagger had already experienced two very public long-term unions.
His Complicated History With Marriage
Jagger married Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias in 1971.
Their marriage lasted until 1978.
Years later, he held a marriage ceremony with model Jerry Hall in Bali in 1990. Their relationship ended in 1999, but the ceremony was subsequently ruled not legally valid and the union was annulled rather than formally dissolved through divorce.
Jagger later had a long relationship with fashion designer L’Wren Scott, beginning in 2001 and continuing until her death in 2014.
Against that history, the idea of another engagement might once have seemed unlikely.
But 2014 also brought another major relationship into Jagger’s life.
Mick And Melanie Met Backstage In Tokyo
Jagger met Hamrick backstage at a Rolling Stones concert in Tokyo in 2014.
Hamrick had built a successful career as a professional ballerina, dancing with American Ballet Theatre for 15 years before retiring in 2019.
Their romance developed largely away from the spotlight.
Two years after meeting, the couple welcomed their son, Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger, in December 2016.
Deveraux is Jagger’s eighth child.
For years, Jagger and Hamrick continued their relationship without making marriage a public focus. That changed in 2023 when Hamrick was spotted wearing a ring on her left hand.
Engagement speculation immediately followed.
At the time, however, she played down the significance of the jewelry and denied that it represented a promise to marry.
The real story would not emerge until later.
Melanie Finally Confirmed Their Secret Engagement
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In 2025, Hamrick revealed during an interview with French publication Paris Match that she and Jagger were, in fact, engaged.
And the proposal had not been particularly recent.
“We’ve been engaged two or three years,” she revealed.
Yet confirmation of the engagement did not come with confirmation of a wedding.
Instead, Hamrick suggested that the couple were perfectly comfortable leaving their future open.
“Maybe one day we’ll marry, maybe not,” she said. “We are so happy in our current life that I would be too afraid to change anything.”
It was an answer that seemed surprisingly compatible with the views Jagger had expressed years earlier.
The ring may have changed. The label may have changed. But there appears to be little pressure from either of them to transform their relationship simply to satisfy convention.
‘Whose Wedding?’
Hamrick has remained equally elusive whenever wedding plans have been raised since.
When HELLO! asked whether The Rolling Stones might perform at a future wedding between her and Jagger, she offered a playful response rather than revealing any plans.
“Whose wedding?” she replied.
She added that such decisions would “be determined” at a later point.
After more than a decade together, the couple have therefore found themselves in an unusual position: engaged, raising their son and seemingly content with their life, while refusing to say whether a ceremony will ever actually happen.
For Jagger, that ambiguity may be entirely fitting.
Years before meeting Hamrick, he had already made clear that he did not believe every lasting relationship needed to follow the traditional script.
Now, after once calling marriage an “elaborate fantasy,” the Rolling Stones frontman is engaged again — but whether he will ultimately change his mind enough to make Melanie Hamrick his wife remains one part of their story the couple are keeping firmly to themselves.