In love, age is but a number. But in law, age is a significant number—case in point, the Wyman-Smith nuptial.

Bill Wyman met his second wife, Mandy Smith when she was 13, and he was 47. They married when she was 18 and were divorced after two years of marriage. In the same year, Wyman’s 30-year-old son married Smith’s 46-year-old mother.

Who is Bill Wyman?

Bill Wyman was born William George Perks on October 24, 1936, to a young couple William and Kathleen May. During the second world war, Wyman grew up where they were obligated to carry government-issued gas masks that looked like Mickey Mouse. Air-raid shelters were a common thing when Wyman grew up. (Source: Bill Wyman)

In 1943, Wyman’s aunt Dorothy brought him to dance. This was where his ambition to be part of a band was formed, as he watched a great dance band perform, and everyone was dancing the jitterbug. Wyman was later introduced to Jazz by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Gerry Mulligan. However, in the later years became obsessed with rock ‘n’ roll during his time as a serviceman.

Wyman married his first wife, Diane Maureen Cory, on his 23rd birthday, October 24, 1959, and had their son Stephen Paul Wyman in 1962. Their marriage lasted for ten years, and they divorced in 1969. (Source: Bill Wyman)

Wyman joined the Rolling Stones by  1962 and became the band’s lead bassist until 1993. Throughout his career with the band, Wyman was considered the ladies man despite being known as the “quiet one” in the group. Wyman bragged in an interview how he fared better than the rest of the band when it came to women.

Wyman left the Rolling Stones in 1993 and formed his band called Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. Wyman married twice. He married Mandy Smith in 1989, then Suzanne Acosta in 1993. Truly a rock ‘n’ roll legend, Wyman proved this with his marriage to Smith. (Source: The Guardian)

The Controversial Marriage

Wyman and Smith met in 1984. Wyman was 47, and Smith was only 13. Smith, then, looked and acted older than her age. She and her older sister would dress up, put on make-up, and hit the discos. The sisters were then given tickets to an awards party where she met the legendary Rolling Stones bassist. (Source: Irish Times)

It was from the heart. It wasn’t lust, which people saw it as. She was a woman at thirteen, Wyman recounts in his autobiography, and also remembers that everyone accepted her as an adult without question.

Billy Wyman

The couple married five years after they met when Wyman was 52 and Smith was 18. The marriage only lasted from 1989 to 1993. In the same year of their divorce, Wyman’s son, Stephen, 30, married Smith’s mother, who was 46. (Source: The Guardian)

Later on, Wyman recounts that he was foolish to think their marriage could work, stating that Smith was too young. He said Smith needed to see life a bit. (Source: Stuff)

Their marriage sparked outrage, with the public seeing Wyman as a predator grooming Smith at the tender age of thirteen. Wyman volunteered to be interviewed by the police in 2013, but the police declined to have a session with him. The bassist was open to discuss the nature of his relationship with Smith, to which he received a decline as the answer. (Source: Smooth Radio)