A frontman of a renowned rock band has eight kids from five different women, but his firstborn daughter, whom he once disowned, saved him in his darkest hour.
The English native wanted nothing to do with a child he initially wanted to have with his former girlfriend. Even though the pair had a passionate romantic encounter once.
Novelist and biographer Marsha Hunt photographed while sitting with her legs crossed in 1970. | Source: Getty Images
When the girlfriend eventually fell pregnant with the couple’s first child, the famed musician became stone-hearted. The two first crossed paths when the girlfriend appeared as the female lead in the musical “Hair.”
The songwriter had his PA contact the actress, a former Vogue model, to ask her to appear on the cover of the rock band’s single “Honky Tonk Women,” dressed salaciously. At first, the woman refused, but the singer turned up at her flat in London a few nights later.
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Within days, they had developed a whirlwind romance. She came from a low-income family in Philadelphia and studied at Berkeley University of California before relocating to England in 1966 at age twenty. Her good looks attracted many well-known actors, including Marc Bolan and Paul Nicholas.
Moreover, the musician publicly embarrassed his real girlfriend when he announced his affair with this particular woman in the late sixties. When his band paid homage to its former guitarist, they played a tribute concert with 250,000 people in attendance.
The new flame, also a singer, was sitting amongst the crowd and was just yards away from the music star’s live-in girlfriend of three years. To add to the awkwardness, the film producer distastefully opened the show by singing a cover version of the rock song
It was an unimaginable public humiliation for his real lover, then 22, because she and other London residents already knew that he was cheating on her with the new woman.
The lead vocalist had written a series of ten love letters to his mistress during the height of their romance, which sold at Sotheby’s in London. In one, he wrote:
“I will kiss you softly. And bite your mouth, too.”
“If I sailed with you around the world, all my sails would be unfurled,” the renowned Rock Hall of Famer said in a poetic mood in another letter. Within months, his already broken relationship with his real girlfriend was over, and he moved his new love into his house. The man later took his lover out to a restaurant, where he asked her to have his child.
The woman quickly fell pregnant, and he talked about wanting a son, whom he had decided to call Midnight Dream. However, within three months, things dramatically changed as he became cold towards her and had already had his eyes set on other females he had marked down to share his bed.
The woman in question was Marsha Hunt, who was stunned by her boyfriend Mick Jagger’s unfair treatment, and she woman moved out. Despite carrying his child, all references to her and the unborn baby did not matter to him anymore.
One of his girls, model Catherine James, then 22, revealed that she knew about Hunt when she moved into Jagger’s house but that their relationship was over.
Unable to work because she was heavily pregnant by then, Hunt reluctantly contacted Jagger to ask for money. He sent her a mere $272.23. When she gave birth to their daughter, Karis, on November 4, 1970, Hunt went through the delivery alone.
Jagger only made an appearance several days later, and it was the only time he would make it to see the infant. But that was not enough for Hunt, who eventually snapped and accused him of neglecting their child. In response, he brutally told her that he never loved her.
The actress, who kept the identity of her baby’s father a secret from the world, was forced to bring up her child without almost any financial contribution from Jagger.
His former personal assistant in the early seventies, Chris O’Dell, revealed that there was never a time when the actor talked about his daughter. O’Dell was not even aware that there was one, adding it was almost as if Karis did not exist at all.
When the baby got scalded by hot tea in an accident and needed to spend days in a private hospital, her millionaire father did not even pay the $102.08 cost of her treatment.
Hunt finally gained strength to seek action after failing to persuade Jagger to set up a $34 026.25 trust fund for their daughter. Therefore, she and her lawyers formulated a plan.
Hunt arranged to meet the father of her child at the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, and her lawyers jumped out to serve him a paternity court order. In June 1973, Hunt launched a court action, and following three hearings; Jagger agreed to pay into a $13,609.65 trust for Karis, including $680,47 a year, in an out-of-court deal.
Shockingly, his lawyers insisted for Hunt to sign papers saying he was not the father. Meanwhile, his former live-in chef and ex-girlfriend, James, revealed otherwise.
“I don’t know why Mick did that because he told me at the time that Karis was his child,” said James, who added that the main issue was that Hunt wanted money from him. According to her, at first, Hunt told Jagger that she would take care of everything involving their child.
James believed Hunt’s quick turnaround to sue Jagger set him off. By the time Karis was seven years old, her mother was reduced to claiming welfare handouts in Los Angeles.
Hunt finally hired a bigshot lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, who had successfully sued several rich and famous men for maintenance on behalf of his clients. In January 1979, Hunt had her breakthrough when a court in LA ruled that Jagger was her daughter’s father and ordered him to pay $1,500 a month in child support.
Their daughter Karis is now a film producer and has two children. After obtaining a degree in modern history, Karis, 52, dabbled in acting.
She soon realized that she was way too shy for show business and opted to work behind the lens instead as a production assistant. Karis met her future spouse on the set of “Patch Adams,” and they wed two years later.
Watson has also bonded with his father-in-law over their love for film-making, and Jagger reportedly gifted the couple their bungalow in LA as a wedding present.
As for Karis, she happens to be old-fashioned when it comes to marriage. She has not worked since she gave birth to her children, Mazie, in 2002 and Zak in 2004 and chose to live her life privately.
According to reports, the mother of two never gives interviews, which pleases her father. A friend of Jagger shared he chose to be involved in his child’s life at this stage, saying it was a simple choice for him:
“He’s picked the adult child of his who is the furthest away from showbiz nonsense and who doesn’t come with an entourage or baggage.”
Karis was simply a decent person and down to earth, said the pal who noted it was easy to have a proper conversation with her, adding that Karis was different from all of Jagger’s brood:
“The fact that she’s the only girl out of them who hasn’t gone off and made a fortune modeling has saved her. She has never been a professional Jagger offspring like the rest.”
The once-disowned daughter later became her father’s greatest supporter on the bleakest day of his life. Karis was by her dad’s side when they laid his long-term girlfriend, L’Wren Scott, to rest.
She and her family also played an integral role at the funeral. Karis read a poem and her young kids read Psalms at the service, and Jagger later went to her house after the ceremony.
She helped her broken father organize the brief farewell to the fashion designer. She planned the intimate gathering following the ceremony at LA’s Sunset Tower Hotel with the rest of the family.