She Was 13, He Was 47: Mandy Smith, Bill Wyman, and the Rolling Stones Controversy

Mandy Smith’s scandalous relationship with Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman began when she was just 13 and led to a highly publicized marriage.

Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman and Mandy Smith. Julian Parker/Getty Images

To learn the full story, read my article on All That’s Interesting.

She was only 13 years old when she caught the attention of a rockstar nearly four decades her senior. At the 1984 BPI Awards, Mandy Smith met Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, a man already 47 years old and famous for his rock-and-roll lifestyle.

As soon as Mandy turned 18, she and Wyman were married.

The controversy that surrounded their relationship, especially in the years before their wedding, made those around them very uncomfortable. However, no legal action was ever taken against Wyman for the relationship he began with Mandy while she was still a child.

And years later, he would defend himself with a disturbing justification:

“She took my breath away… she was a woman at 13.”

Mandy, raised in North London by a single mother, had already experienced a fractured childhood by the time she reached her…