Mick Jagger and his girlfriend, a retired ballet dancer Melanie Hamrickare not worried about the 44-year age difference.
“I don’t think about it. Everyone has their own opinion. When you think about other people’s opinions, no matter where you are in life, you have a problem and you have to analyze it,” said 37-year-old Hamrick The Sunday Times in a profile published on Sunday, September 22. “I have blinders on. Am I happy? Yes. Are the people in my life happy? Yes. Am I hurting anyone? No. OK, they can mind their own business.”
Jagger, 81, and Hamrick met after a Rolling Stones concert in Tokyo in February 2014. Hamrick, then 26, and her colleagues from the American Ballet Theatre, who were in town for their own performance, had been given free tickets to the concert.
The couple began dating the following summer, with Hamrick noting The times that she wasn’t exactly impressed by the Rolling Stones frontman.
“Ballet dancers meet some of the biggest stars and pretend to ask, ‘Who are you?’ Because to us, ballet dancers are the gods. They’re the ones you study and look up to. You’re so in your own world,” Hamrick recalls, noting that she was more impressed by Jagger’s friend, playwright Tom Stoppard. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, can I tell you about my paper (from school)?’ and Mick said, ‘What are you doing?’ and I was like, ‘I love you, Tom!'”
In December 2016, Jagger and Hamrick had their now seven-year-old son, Deveraux “Dev.” The musician is also the father of seven older children from previous relationships.
When the Rolling Stones are on break, Jagger, Hamrick and Dev split their time between the French countryside and New York. (Dev goes to school in France but works with private tutors when the family is away.)
“Mick can’t stay in one place, and I feel the same way,” Hamrick said. “I say, ‘I want to stay in one place.’ And then after two weeks, I ask, ‘Where are we going?'”
In 2023, Hamrick received a diamond “engagement ring” from Jagger, who is her biggest cheerleader in her career. Hamrick is the author of ballet novels First place And The resolution.
“Mick said he meant something like, ‘There was a lot of talk about pounding in the second book,'” Hamrick joked in his profile on Sunday.
It was Jagger who encouraged Hamrick to start writing in the first place.
“I was like, ‘I want to write a book. I want to write a book (after my dance career).’ And then finally he said, ‘Oh my God, write the book!'” she recalls. “I’m really grateful that I found writing. I see how some dancers persevere when they quit, and you just want them to find peace, because some dancers should be ballet dancers and some should move on.”