Jerry Hall is the ultimate Faithful – just ask Mick

While it’s far too early to discern who will eventually triumph in The Celebrity Traitors, for many viewers of the gripping first episodes, Jerry Hall is already a winner. From her competitive spirit to her pithy one-liners (“beneath the dumb blonde lies a smart brunette”), she’s second only to Richard E Grant (who happens to be a friend and neighbour) in making the show’s second season a must-watch. On the face of it, Hall, 70, should be one of the least likeable contestants in the treacherous show. In the pantheon of popularity, a 6ft supermodel with tumbling blonde locks, a rock star ex, a successful acting career, a London mansion and four doting grown-up children should score nul points for relatability. But Hall is that rare beast: a charmer who could so easily be charmless, whose gilded life appears to have done nothing to diminish her humour and warmth. Perhaps it’s because she had a difficult start in life that Hall has remained so grounded. A tomboy with four sisters, she grew up in Mesquite, Texas, and is open about how her truck-driver father, who fought in the Second World War, used to “whip us with his belt”. “He was terrible, but he had PTSD, so I kind of understand,” she once said, ever the empath. Shorts A psychologist wouldn’t hesitate to opine that this difficult formative relationship with her father put her on a path to fall in love with difficult men – or at the very least, be able to handle them. Which brings us neatly to Mick Jagger – categorically not a violent man, but a difficult one nonetheless. He’s a lover, not a fighter. But therein lies the difficulty. Which is why it’s to her immense credit that the two have remained such firm friends. When they began their relationship in 1977 (Hall left her then-fiance, Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry, to be with Jagger) they immediately became one of the most scrutinised couples of their generation, for more than two decades inhabiting that rare territory reserved for people so famous that no surnames are required. Throughout the 80s and 90s, “Mick and Jerry” were the golden couple who had it all. They were the rockstar and the model who, when they weren’t performing rockstar/model cliches (in 1978, she appeared in the Rolling Stones’ video for “Miss You”), were blithely popping out photogenic children (Elizabeth Scarlett in 1984, James Leroy in 1985, Georgia May in 1992 and Gabriel Luke in 1997). They cemented their love in 1990, via a Hindu wedding ceremony in Bali. By the end of the decade, however, the romance was over – and not in a way that augured well for any future friendship. In 1999, after 22 years together, Hall’s patience finally snapped after finding out that Jagger had had an eight-month affair with Brazilian model Luciana Morad, who was expecting his child. When Hall petitioned for divorce, Jagger’s lawyers fought by claiming their wedding wasn’t legally binding under British law. Rather than a formal divorce, this reduced their union to an annulment. Mick Jagger and Jerry in the 1980s. The couple divorced in 1999 after 22 years together (Photo: Tom Wargacki/WireImage) It might have been the point at which a long and complicated relationship dissolved into bitter regret and recrimination. Instead, something more interesting happened. With a sensitivity that long predated the much-vaunted “conscious uncoupling” of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin in 2014, Hall and Jagger adroitly managed to separate the end of their marriage from the end of their family. Granted, in a 2000 interview she called Jagger a “womaniser”, but in the immediate aftermath of the break-up, no doubt emotions were running high. Few could blame Hall for speaking her truth: throughout their time together, Jagger was repeatedly linked to other women, not least the model Carla Bruni, whom in 1992 he reportedly flew to see in Thailand, a mere 24 hours after Hall had given birth to the couple’s third child. Bar the occasional comment about his stinginess (she once revealed that, despite his multimillion pound fortune, Jagger was “very tight with the day-to-day stuff”, and regularly expected her to pay out of her own pocket for household and child-related expenses), Hall has generally played much nicer than she could have – or even should have. As time has passed, the two have forged a deep and genuine affection. She has spoken many times over the years about remaining friends with Jagger, emphasising the effort they made to provide stability for their children. Interviewed for British Vogue’s July issue, she called him “a brilliant granddad”, adding that he and his choreographer fiancee, Melanie Hamrick, 39, often join them for an extended family lunch with their nine year-old son. Last Christmas, 23 of them spent the holiday in Mustique. “Mick’s a great diplomat,” she added. “All the kids love each other. All the mothers of the kids love each other. It’s just odd, isn’t it? Just worked out that way.” It’s an innate part of her charm – and skill – that Hall makes everything sound as smooth and easy as buttering toast. As anyone who has entered into a blended family will attest, it absolutely isn’t. Clearly, Hall has the heart of a lioness and the tact of a diplomat. And, like any diplomat, she knows when to keep schtum. In the Vogue interview, she shrewdly observes that friendship with an ex depends largely on circumstance. “Not all exes you want to be friends with, do you? Some people aren’t friendly. But I think when you have children with someone it’s important to be friendly.” Pause. “Rupert, we were married six and half years and no children, and so, you know.” It was a delicate, non-confrontational way of explaining why not all of her relationships with her exes are as cordial as the one between her and Jagger. Certainly, her relationship with her more recent ex, 95-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is non-existent: the two divorced in 2022, and Hall is clearly bound by some sort of separation agreement that precludes her from speaking about it (including, hilariously, an alleged stipulation that no details, under any circumstances, can be given to the makers of Succession). Jerry with then-husband Rupert Murdoch. They divorced in 2022 after six years of marriage (Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) In a move that no one – possibly not even Jerry – saw coming, during the messiest parts of her extrication from the marriage, it was Jagger who stepped into the breach. Like the subject of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s most romantic song, he protected her from the hooded claw and kept the vampire from her door – by sending his security consultant to disconnect the live surveillance cameras placed in the Oxfordshire home that Hall had received from Murdoch in the divorce settlement. Despite the split, the footage was allegedly still being sent to the man once nicknamed the “Dirty Digger”. It was quite the grand gesture from a man who wasn’t always known for having Hall’s best interests at heart. Asked by Vogue if she thinks people have misconceptions about their relationship, Hall replied: “Well, I think they do because newspapers make up stories all the time. He and I get on really well. I can only think nice things about him. You know, when you’re young, people get crushes on people and do stupid things all the time, don’t they?” It was the closest she could come to saying she’d forgiven him. For without forgiveness, they wouldn’t be the team they are. Their children might now be adults, but they’re still co-parents for life. Before she entered The Traitors’ castle, Hall gave the family a pep talk. “I did tell my four children, and I told Mick, that if any of the children had a problem, they were to call him because I was busy. They worry. They’re like, ‘You think you’re younger than you are. You and Dad are always doing things that you did in your twenties that maybe you shouldn’t be doing now.”’ Their enthusiasm for life – Mick is 83 – is likely another thing that bonds them. Asked by Grazia why she said yes to the show, Hall simply replied: “I say yes to everything. That’s how I’ve had all this excitement in my life.” No doubt Mick is perched on the sofa watching Traitors like the rest of us. And if he is, he’s rooting for Jerry, and proud of her thirst to win. “I think the detective side is in me, so I’d be good at that – a Faithful hunter of Traitors,” she declared in episode one. “However, I’d like to be a Traitor. If you’re a Traitor you know all the facts. It’s more powerful.” Given that 42 per cent of marriages in the UK end in divorce, it’s hardly a shock that Hall and Jagger didn’t preserve theirs. But they did preserve their family and their friendship. For two people whose lives have played out so conspicuously, it’s an achievement. Whether or not she’s made a Traitor in the show, when it comes to her relationship with Mick, she’s very much a faithful. And so, against all odds, is he.