Great- grandad Mick a dad again
At the ripe age of 73, and with a greatgranddaughter to dote on, many a man might consider it time to put his feet up. Not so Mick Jagger, who yesterday welcomed another son into the world.
Jagger has announced the birth of his eighth child, a boy, who is 2 ½ years younger than his own greatgrandchild.
His partner, Melanie Hamrick, who at 29 is 44 years his junior, gave birth in New York, with both said to be “delighted” at the happy news.
The new arrival was announced by the Rolling Stones frontman’s publicist Bernard Doherty, who said: “Melanie Hamrick and Mick Jagger’s son was born today in New York and they are both delighted.
“Mick was at the hospital for the arrival. Mother and baby are doing well and we request that the media respect their privacy at this time.”
The baby is Jagger’s fourth son, and his first child with ballerina Hamrick. The couple began dating after the suicide of fashion designer L’Wren Scott, Jagger’s partner of 13 years, in 2014.
The rock star has seven children from previous relationships, ranging in age from 17 to 46 and now encompassing five different mothers.
The baby boy joins the compli- cated ranks of the Rolling Stones families, with members fathering 17 children between them. Charlie Watts fathered his only child in 1968, while Ronnie Wood has amassed a clan of six, born between the mid- seventies and this year, when twin daughters Gracie Jane and Alice Rose were born. Keith Richards has two, although his youngest son died at two months old.
Wood has six grandchildren, all of whom are older than his own new daughters, while Richards and Jagger have five apiece and Watts has one.
Jagger’s new son arrives 47 years after his first child, with Karis Hunt Jagger being born to Marsha Hunt in 1970. Karis went on to have two children of her own, Mazie and Zack.
Just one year later, in 1971, Jade Jagger arrived to mother Bianca. She has gone on to have three children, Amba, Assisi and Ray. In 2014, Assisi gave birth to a daughter, Ezra: the first of Jagger’s great- grandchildren.
Four of his children were the product of his long relationship with supermodel Jerry Hall, with Elizabeth, James, Georgia May and Gabriel arriving between 1984 and 1997.
In 1999, he surprised the world with another son, Lucas, with model Luciana Gimenez Morad.
In 2001, Jagger began a relationship with L’Wren Scott. She committed suicide in 2014, after it was reported that she was deeply in debt, while he was on tour in Australia.
He was photographed with Hamrick soon afterwards, and confirmed an eighth child was on the way earlier this year. Sources insisted he would provide full support for Hamrick and the baby without formalising their relationship, with the couple intending to live apart.
The birth of Jagger’s new son comes six months after his bandmate Ronnie Wood and his wife Sally Humphreys welcomed twin girls, just two days before Wood turned 69.
Jagger has previously said of fatherhood: “I think I’m a pretty good father. I have a nice affinity with children, not just my own. Kids keep you young and they keep you laughing.”
It may be the icing on the cake for Jagger and his bandmates this week, with the Rolling Stones in line to top the charts with their first studio album in more than a decade.