Bill Wyman and Mandy Smith were married between 1989 and 1991, and they first met when Smith was just 13 years old and Wyman was 47.
FacebookMandy Smith was frequently called a “wild child” in 1980s London.
Mandy Smith was just 13 years old when she caught the eye of Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman — a man who was 34 years her senior. Their controversial relationship eventually made headlines across the U.K., and when they got married in 1989, Mandy was only 18.
Their marriage didn’t last long, and they were divorced after 23 months. No legal action was ever taken against Wyman for pursuing Mandy when she was underage. He later said he was “really stupid” for starting the relationship in the first place because “she was too young.”
Behind the tabloid attention was a girl whose youth unraveled far too quickly.
Mandy Smith’s Troubled Childhood
Julian Parker/Getty ImagesBill Wyman and Mandy Smith photographed together in London in 1989.
Amanda Louise Smith, known to the world as Mandy Smith, was born on July 17, 1970. She grew up in a council house in North London, living a modest life. Her father, John, left when she was just three, and her mother, Patsy, raised Mandy and her older sister Nicola alone. By their early teens, the sisters were hanging out in nightclubs and smoking cigarettes.
At the age of 13, Mandy’s life would change forever. She attended the 1984 BPI Awards with her sister Nicola, where she met Bill Wyman, the 47-year-old bassist of the rock band The Rolling Stones. That meeting quietly led to a controversial relationship that would remain secret for years.
The day after he met the sisters, Wyman took both of the girls to lunch and told Nicola that he was “totally in love” with Mandy. In his 1990 autobiography, Wyman later wrote, “She took my breath away… she was a woman at 13.” This sentence would horrify many people in hindsight.
By the time she was 14, Mandy’s relationship with Wyman had become sexual. At this point, the relationship was hidden from the public, considering Mandy was still underage. But her mother Patsy knew what was going on. Patsy not only failed to intervene, but seemed to encourage the relationship.
Patsy was later accused of seeking social advancement through her daughters, despite their young age. Mandy, however, later defended her mother: “She was really ill at the time and thought she was going to die — we didn’t know what of — and he looked after me.”
Public Outrage And Private Pain
Wikimedia CommonsThe Rolling Stones on tour in 1966.
After Mandy Smith turned 16, her relationship with Wyman became public knowledge. In the U.K., 16 is the legal age of consent, but the revelation sparked national controversy. There were no legal consequences for Wyman, and he would later brush it off, blaming his actions on a midlife crisis.
Meanwhile, Mandy was heavily scrutinized and some members of the press portrayed her as merely a bad influence, despite her young age. At one point, she was scheduled to be interviewed on the Irish show Saturday Live, but the broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann downgraded her to an audience member, claiming that she was “not important enough” to be interviewed.
By that point, Mandy had started pursuing a career in modeling and even pop music. But behind the scenes, she was feeling an enormous amount of pressure. Still just a teenager, she was balancing a pseudo-celebrity status with the emotional burden of an inappropriate relationship.
The toll on her health began to show, as she became alarmingly thin. She later blamed her early use of birth control for her deteriorating condition.
In 1989, at 18 years old, Mandy Smith married Bill Wyman in a civil ceremony on his Suffolk estate. He was 52 at the time. On the surface, the photos made it look like a fairytale ending where the rock star marries the model bride. But underneath the surface, Mandy was greatly struggling.
The Unraveling Of A Controversial Marriage
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoThe 52-year-old Bill Wyman married 18-year-old Mandy Smith in 1989.
Mandy Smith and Bill Wyman’s marriage lasted only a few weeks before it started to unravel. Wyman admitted to infidelity almost immediately, and Mandy moved out soon afterward. Their divorce was finalized after 23 months, and Mandy received a settlement worth $880,000.
In a bizarre twist, in 1993, Wyman’s 30-year-old son Stephen, from his first marriage, married Mandy’s mother, Patsy, who was then 46. That marriage ended after just two years, adding to the already dramatic saga.
Meanwhile, Mandy tried to keep her pop career alive, releasing singles throughout the 1990s. But the music industry, especially in the U.K., seemed to view her more as a tabloid figure than a serious artist.
The public continued to focus more on her personal life than her professional ambitions. Her health further declined, and she struggled with a mysterious “wasting disease” that doctors couldn’t easily diagnose. At one point, she weighed only 80 pounds. By the end of the 1990s, Mandy’s dreams of fame had dimmed, and she began to retreat from the public eye.
Mandy Smith’s Life After The Headlines
PinterestMandy Smith, photographed around 2009.
Following her separation from Wyman, Mandy Smith entered yet another turbulent relationship. She married professional footballer Pat van den Hauwe, who was 10 years older than her. The couple were together for two years, but the marriage was said to be “destructive.”
Smith later found companionship with model Ian Mosby, a man who was closer to her own age. The couple welcomed a son named Max, and for a brief time, Smith seemed to find some peace and happiness.
But it didn’t last. Smith’s relationship with Mosby also ended shortly after the birth of their child. As a single mother, Smith decided to take a step back away from the spotlight for herself and for her son.
Focusing on raising Max and rebuilding her life, she decided to run a PR company, Kiss PR, with her sister Nicola. Mandy Smith also became a devout Roman Catholic, attending church with her son every Sunday.
She also wrote a candid memoir, Mandy Smith: It’s All Over Now: Seduced at 13, Married at 19, Divorced at 21 – My Life with the Rolling Stones, where she shared the story of her troubled relationship with Wyman and what she faced growing up with heartbreak and fame at such a young age.
Though Smith’s public appearances are rare now, she has spoken publicly about the damaging effects of her early relationship and the media circus that followed. In 2010, she called for the U.K.’s age of consent to be raised from 16 to 18, saying, “People will find that odd coming from me. But I think I do know what I’m talking about here. You are still a child — even at 16. You can never get that part of your life, your childhood, back. I never could.”
After reading about the life of Mandy Smith, learn about Anita Pallenberg, the famous muse of The Rolling Stones. Then, go inside the chilling and mysterious death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones.
