Mick Jagger Reportedly Said Jerry Hall Was “Impossible to Live with” When She Wasn’t Smoking
Who: Rolling Stones singer and three-time Grammy-winner Mick Jagger, 76, and model and actress Jerry Hall, 63.
How They Met: Their relationship was shrouded in drama from day one. The pair met around 1976, when both parties were otherwise involved — Jagger with then-wife Bianca, and Hall with then-fiancé Bryan Ferry. Jagger invited Hall and Ferry, a fellow musician, over for dinner in London one night. "Bryan was flattered by Mick's attention, but he could also see that Mick was smitten with me. It couldn't have been nice for him,” Hall wrote in her 2010 coffee table book-cum-autobiography Jerry Hall: My Life in Pictures. According to People, Hall and Jagger’s relationship overlapped a bit with the end of Jagger’s marriage in 1978.
After more than a decade together (and more than a few bumps along the way), Hall and Jagger wed in Bali in 1990.
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Why We Loved Them: The early days of Jagger and Hall’s relationship were emblematic of a very particular time, when “Sex, Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll” was a cliche used in earnest and Studio 54 was the only place to be on a Saturday night. While the relationship itself was reportedly riddled with infidelity and grade-A drama, it will always stand as a marker of the era.
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When They Peaked: Well it’s not a peak, per se, but it bears mention that Jagger reportedly once told the Detroit Free Press that Hall was “impossible to live with” after she stopped smoking. Ah, the endearing praise of a supportive partner. He allegedly told the publication he’d given Hall an ultimatum: “Either start smoking, or I’m leaving.” But Hall had an ultimatum for Jagger as well: "I told him I couldn't see him if he took drugs, saying, 'Go away and don't come back until you're straight.' He succeeded — he had amazing willpower,” she wrote decades later, describing how Jagger gave up heroin.
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The Breakup: Which time? In 1982, Hall left Jagger for a wealthy horse breeder named Robert Sangster. At the time, a British gossip columnist named Nigel Dempster told People Hall was “fed up because Mick refuses to marry,” adding, “There are times in the last five years when she has made relatively little money on her own because she has been traipsing behind a rock star, and she is worried about the future.” By the following year, Hall and Jagger were back together and expecting their first child together. “We just broke up for a while,” Jagger told Rolling Stone when pressed to discuss the split.
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In 1992, Hall reportedly briefly left Jagger once more, this time due to infidelity on the singer’s part. As the story goes, the day after Hall gave birth to her and Jagger’s third child together, Georgia May, Jagger left to visit singer and model (and future First Lady of France) Carla Bruni in Thailand. “I felt sick when I realized Mick was still seeing Carla,” Hall told reporters that summer. “I can confirm that we’re separated, and I suppose we will get a divorce. I’m in too much pain for this to go on any longer.” Bruni denied her involvement with Jagger, telling People, “He’s a fossil. His wife can keep him,” but that didn’t stop the rumor mill from churning.
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In 1999, a scandal came between Hall and Jagger again — for the last time. Tabloids began reporting that model Luciana Morad was carrying Jagger’s child (spoiler: she was). Hall filed for divorce, but her and Jagger's hindu ceremony was never actually legally binding, so she was granted an annulment instead. "I didn't like the idea of annulling after 23 years and four children," Hall later told The Guardian, "It seemed a bit rude."
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When the saga finally reached its close, Hall had some generous things to say about Jagger. “He's the most fabulous ex- husband,” she told SF Gate. But there were some less than generous words as well: “He's a sick, addictive womanizer who made me very unhappy.” In her book, Hall wrote that she believed Jagger had traded his addiction to drugs with sex: “I had weaned him off drugs, but they had been replaced by sex.”
Where They Are Now:
Jagger has reportedly been dating 33-year-old ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick for several years. The pair share 3-year-old son Deveraux (the youngest of Jagger’s eight children).
Hall wed 89-year-old billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 2016.
