Mick Jaggers Shocking Marriage Stuns Keith Richards

Saint Tropez provided the backdrop and Chapelle Sainte-Anne the venue as exchanged vows with Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías, soon to be known as Bianca Jagger, on May 12, 1971. 

The sixties were over, Altamont was still a recent memory and The were a band in transition, having exiled to the south of at the bequest of their financial advisors to avoid the UK's soaring tax rates. 

And it was here, in a picturesque chapel overlooking the Place du Maréchal-Leclerc, that Jagger would marry the Nicaraguan actress in front of guests including Sir Paul and Linda McCartney, and royal photographer Patrick Lichfield. 

But it was the image of bandmate , arms folded, underdressed and clearly bemused as he watched Jagger marry his new wife, that told the real story, according to a new biography about the legendary band. 

Documenting their extraordinary career in forthcoming book The Rolling Stones: The Biography, author Bob Spitza says Richards was stunned when Jagger told him about the planned wedding, just seven days before it took place.

According to Spitz, Jagger, now 82, broke the news while the band rehearsed songs that would eventually be included on their 1972 album, Exile on Main St. 

'The first rehearsal, on May 5, was a loose review of recent material,' he writes. 'Halfway through it, Mick let slip that on May 12 he and Bianca were marrying in St Tropez. 

'The news was a bombshell, especially for Keith. Mick hadn’t taken him into his confidence - Keith had a contempt for the tradition, viewing marriage as a bourgeois affair. 

'Neither did Mick tell him that Bianca was four months pregnant.' 

Spitz claims the entire ceremony was arranged at the eleventh hour, with guests given just 48 hours notice and many of them boarding the same flight to France from Gatwick Airport.   

He writes: ' and Ringo Starr and their wives were on board (seated at opposite ends of the cabin as McCartney was suing his bandmates), as were Eric Clapton, members of the Small Faces, including the future Stone ,  and Keith Moon from the Who, Peter Frampton, Stephen Stills, the film director Roger Vadim, the photographer Patrick Lichfield, the designer Ossie Clark and Mick’s parents - 75 passengers in all. 

'The music producer Jimmy Miller, who marvelled at the amount of pot and cocaine circulating on the flight, quipped, “I don’t think this plane needs any fuel to fly.”' 

With Saint Tropez rapidly overrun with 'stargazers, tabloid press and paparazzi,' Mick and Bianca's civil ceremony was followed by a Catholic service at Chapelle Sainte-Anne. 

But according to Spitz, the bride and groom were 'angry and frazzled' ahead of the service, with Bianca eventually leaving her new husband to party into the early hours at their star-studded reception while she retired to their bedroom.  

'The party raged until the morning, fuelled by champagne, cocaine and performances by the famous guests,' Spitz writes. 

'Mick largely ignored Bianca, who decamped to her hotel room early on. He sang lead on a number of R&B staples, finally stealing away slightly before 5:00am. 

'The next day Mick and Bianca boarded a yacht for a ten-day honeymoon to Corsica and Sardinia. Any new music would be put off for at least two weeks.' 

The couple would welcome their only child, daughter Jade, in October 1971. They divorced seven years later, with Bianca later claiming her ex-husband was '... in some ways a misogynist, because there are too many women available to him.'