Bill Wyman and Mandy Smith: The Controversial Relationship That Shadowed His Rolling Stones Era

The most notorious chapter in Bill Wyman’s personal life began when he met 13-year-old Mandy Smith at a Rolling Stones afterparty in 1983. Wyman was 47. They started a relationship the next year, and although he said they waited until she was 16 to have sex, the public and press were already appalled. They got engaged when she turned 17 and married when she was 18.

The marriage lasted six years, but the damage was done. The age gap and the grooming narrative made Wyman a tabloid villain – especially after Smith later admitted the relationship had been “like being brainwashed” and that she hadn’t felt ready for sex or marriage. Wyman left the Rolling Stones in 1993, and though he cited boredom and desire to settle down, many assumed the scandal had made his position in the band untenable. The couple divorced in 1991, and Smith eventually criticized the relationship publicly, cementing it as a stain on Wyman’s legacy. Even decades later, it remains one of the most uncomfortable stories tied to any Rolling Stone.