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On preferring Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama
I'm voting for Hillary. I think b*tches get things done (2008)
On unflattering paparazzi beach photos
I've never had cellulite. But if it cheered people up at the breakfast table, that's fine by me (2004)
To Andy Warhol
I want to marry a millionaire, so I can have caviar any time of the day or night, and take nice long champagne baths (1975)
On Mick Jagger's songs
I don't nag him to death, saying "Which one's about me?" But whenever I have asked him he's always given me the same answer. "Darling," he says, "they're all about you." It's soo sweet (1985)
On meeting Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in Paris
They loved to hear me talk stuff about rodeos (1985)
On leaving court, cleared of importing 20lbs of Marijuana into Barbados
My only vice is Chanel (1987)
On being seduced by Jagger
Mick and I just really liked each other a lot. We talked all night. We had the same views on nuclear disarmament (1985)
On personality
I think if I weren't so beautiful, maybe I'd have more character (1981)
As an agony aunt, advising a reader whose husband didn't want a third child
Honey, remember, the more you make love, the more chance there is of a happy accident ... Chances are he will get used to it. If not, having a baby later in life is an especially good idea: you will get alimony pretty much until your pension kicks in (2009)
On dating younger men
I don't want to be ageist or anything, but I don't really like their tastes in music. It's like Coldplay ... it's like arrrgh (2008)
It's like Coldplay ... it's like arrrgh
'I want to marry again because I miss the sex', Jerry Hall reveals she's on the lookout for love
21st August 2009
Form an orderly queue chaps – ten years after she called time on Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall is ready to marry again because she misses the sex. But this time she’s going to be more choosy.
Jerry Hall has had it with rock stars. They're too tricky. Never grow up. No, Jerry wants companionship; a man to grow old with, someone nice. Only Jerry, with her rich, ineradicable Texan accent, doesn't say nice, she says 'nahice', stretching the vowel to breaking point, much as serial philanderer Mick Jagger stretched her patience during their 23 years together.
'I suppose when you're younger you're looking for an alpha male with lots of testosterone,' says Jerry, who's 53 now. 'Mick was very, very charismatic and very funny, but the eternal dissatisfied adolescent. He was so irreverent and loose. He always used to make me laugh – and there was definitely some chemistry going on. But a lot of rock stars never grow up, and I'm not looking for that now – definitely not. Priorities change. You want companionship. There are so many things you don't really care about that you did when you were younger. You become less picky about superficial things.
'When you're younger you're more like, "I want someone who's tall and handsome." As you get older you don't think so much like that. I would never go out with a rock star again – definitely not. I have moved on from Mick. I just want someone who I like – someone who's kind, who's going to be nice to you.'
Ouch. Jerry says all of this in honeyed Texan tones with a sugary smile. In fact, the smile rarely slips throughout this interview, belying the bluntness of her words: Mick wasn't that nice. Jerry is. We meet at a West End café a stone's throw from the Noël Coward Theatre, where Jerry's stripping for the West End version of Calendar Girls. She plays Miss September, the character portrayed by Celia Imrie in the hit 2003 film about the famous Women's Institute calendar.
Given her delicious accent though, producers had to change the part from a refined northerner to a Texan who married a Yorkshireman – protecting Jerry's modesty with two strategically placed iced buns. Jerry first appeared nude on stage as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate in 2000, a year after her patience finally snapped with Jagger. She discovered that the Brazilian model Luciana Morad was carrying his baby when the youngest of her four children with Jagger, Gabriel, was a year old.
'I felt quite nervous about taking my clothes off in front of everyone,' she says. 'I never go topless on the beach and never like walking around with no clothes on. I don't feel at all comfortable with it, so it's very odd that I keep getting these roles. But jam-making ladies in their pearls getting their kit off is quite a funny story. The role in The Graduate was a humorous one as well. I like to laugh. Humour has always helped me hide my hurt,' she says.
Humour and, I suspect, having the last laugh on an ageing Jumping Jack Flash. For Jerry looks remarkable at 53. No Botox. No nips or tucks. She's wearing canary-yellow capri pants, a colour that her impossibly long, slim legs allow her to carry off. Her hair is more honeyed blond than peroxide white, and she's totally unapologetic about the roots.
While Jerry's hair has always been a major part of her identity, it has been a source of controversy, too. One advert she appeared in for a hair dye contained the line, 'And you thought you'd be better off with a brunette!', which many took to be a dig at Carla Bruni, now Carla Sarkozy, wife of the French President – and the woman with whom her ex- husband became besotted in 1992. Such was his infatuation with the supermodel, who was 22 when they began their seven-year affair, that when Jerry gave birth to their third child, Georgia May, now 17, he is said to have put in only the briefest of appearances before heading to Thailand with Bruni.
The story goes that when Jerry finally met Bruni at a party, she instructed her to 'keep your hands off my mahn'. Bruni is said to have countered with a catty side-swipe, declaring that Jerry had 'no class, no elegance', but Jerry denies this. 'That's not true. I've never met her,' she insists, spitting the word 'her' out like a nasty taste. Did the affair with Bruni cause her a great deal of pain? 'Yeah,' she says. 'And so did the affairs with quite a few others.'
Seven years ago, when he was 58, Jagger had a fling with supermodel Sophie Dahl, who was then 23. At 41, his current girlfriend, the American stylist L'Wren Scott is only a couple of years older than his eldest child, Karis, his daughter with 1960s icon Marsha Hunt.
Is Jerry tempted by youth? 'I'd find it a bit creepy having sex with people the same age as your children,' she says. 'Younger men look handsome from a distance, but I wouldn't want to go out with one. I wouldn't want to be with someone who had loads of energy, listened to weird music and wanted to go out late. I like going to good restaurants. I like going to art galleries and exhibitions. It's nice to go on dates with someone intelligent – to discuss plays and books. It would be lovely to meet someone. Love is such a special, magical thing. I think sex is a wonderful thing, too.'
Jerry has dated film producer George Waud, banker Tim Attias, explorer Benedict Allen and cricketer Shane Warne. Did she come close to marriage with any of them? 'You're always a bit hopeful, but no,' she says. 'I'm very happy on my own. I wake up happy. I'm naturally happy. I think to be with someone else should add to your life.'
Jerry is sustained by several close female friendships, particularly with Bill Wyman's wife, Suzanne. They belong to a creative writing class that includes Bob Geldof's girlfriend, Jeanne Marine, and Pete Townshend's girlfriend, Rachel Fuller. 'I think it's very important to have lots of female friends. As you get older you realise how valuable your friends are. They really are the jewels in your life. Girlfriends are there when you're upset and when you laugh. It's what I love about Calendar Girls. It's about a woman who's lost her husband, and friends supporting each other through loss.'
She ran her autobiography past her creative writing group and had them in stitches. Not so the publisher, though. Jerry was supposed to have written about life with Jagger, accepting a £500,000 advance from Harper- Collins for the 'explosive' book due out next month. A few months ago, the publishers, who had been prepared to pay £1 million for the book, announced the deal was off. Apparently the memoirs were not explosive enough.
'It's been put on hold,' says Jerry. 'Hopefully, it's coming out at some point. It was a mutual decision to wait. I'm not really ready to put it out yet; maybe in a few years. I've found writing it very cathartic, though. I think as you mature you do remember things differently, or certain things become more important than you thought they were when you were younger. Things like finding your own happiness, being your own person, being comfortable in your skin.
'You know, when I turned 50 I felt relieved. I felt quite proud of myself that I'd made it that far. I think it's good to not have to worry about what you look like and not to have to try so hard. As women we need to embrace all the different stages in life. Now, I hate nightclubs. I love being with my children – cooking, gardening. Being happy.'
She seems happy, laughing a lot during the interview. 'I have frowned way too much in my life, but not any more,' she says. 'I think I stopped f rowning when I got divorced. It's a very sad thing getting divorced, but I think it's better to be happy than to stay with someone if you're not happy.'
So why did she stay with Mick for so long? 'I fell in love and I stayed with him because I was very, very in love for a very long time,' she says. 'I met Mick when I was 19. He was very young, too – in his late twenties. When you're 19 you're looking for fun that night. Things change when you find yourself single years later. I thought we'd always be together. I thought he would grow up. I thought it was because he was a rock star. But it was certainly no fun being cheated on.'
'When you're 19 you're looking for fun that night. Things change when you find yourself single years later. I thought we'd always be together. I thought he would grow up. I thought it was because he was a rock star. But it was certainly no fun being cheated on.'
I'm sure. Jerry was born one of five daughters to a bully of a father, John, a decorated hero of World War II who had fought under General George Patton. He returned to Texas with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress. The only work he could find was as a driver and on the road he developed an addiction to amphetamines. Back home he beat his five daughters, who all left home as soon as they could. Jerry ended up as a model in Paris, where she was talent-spotted by a fashion agent. At 19, she posed on the cover of Roxy Music's album, Siren, and became engaged to the group's lead singer, Bryan Ferry. Then she met Jagger.
'Now I'm older I can look back in sympathy at why my father was so strict and difficult,' she says. 'But it's horrible for children and difficult when you haven't got a good role model. You don't know what to look for in a man. Mick was never violent. I would never have accepted that.' But cheating can be cruel, too. Jerry nods.
'Hey,' she says, stubbing out a cigarette. 'It's boring, too. And it's all such a long time ago. I'm comfortable in my skin now, because basically I do exactly what I like. And, who knows, I might yet get married again. I'm always open to meeting the right man.' She stands up; a six foot mass of long legs and honey coloured hair. Several heads turn to stare in the café. I'm sure there's a queue of decent blokes ready to fill Jerry's situation vacant. Rock stars and toyboys need not apply.
The images that went along with her Daily Mail interview... this was the cover story on the TV supplement on Saturday, my father bought it -and strangely, someone had gone through the copies in the shop and cut out one of Jerry's eyes on each cover, and on each copy, the incision was done in a neat square, perhaps to be used in some insane voodoo ritual where you need a supermodel's eye (dailymail.co.uk![]()