Ronnie Wood’s ex-wife Jo has revealed she’s written a ‘sexy and shocking’ novel based on her experience of recovering from her painful divorce from the Rolling Stones guitarist.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Mail, Jo said: ‘The book is about how not to be a victim after a marriage. And how to pick yourself up and get out there – and have fun, and experience life fully as an older woman.’
Due to be published this summer, The Resurrection of Flo has been described by the publisher as ‘sexy and shocking’.
‘Breaking up with your husband… I know what that feels like’, Jo said. ‘Many women know what that’s like, where the man you love has run off. They say you have to write from experience.
‘My friend read it and said, ”Oh Jo, I could imagine that’s what happened to you when you and Ronnie broke up.” It’s fiction, and the story is about Flo, but of course I’m going to put my feelings into it.’
The book’s protagonist – whose name rhymes with the author’s – is 53 when she gets divorced, the same age Jo was when she split with Ronnie after his affair with 19-year-old cocktail waitress, Ekaterina ‘Katia’ Ivanova.
Ronnie Wood ‘s ex-wife Jo has revealed she’s written a novel based on her experience of recovering from her painful divorce from the Rolling Stones hitmaker (pictured in 2004)
Jo and Ronnie have two children together – Leah, 46, and Tyrone, 41 – and eventually became friends again after Jo filed for divorce in 2008. They remain on good terms.
Jo is also mum to another son, Jamie, 48, from her first marriage to clothing entrepreneur Peter Greene.
‘I met a woman once who said, ”My husband’s left me, my life’s over.” I thought, no it’s not! There’s always life after a relationship, no matter what age you are,’ she said.
She also admitted she hasn’t yet told Ronnie about the book. ‘I’ve been quietly writing it just in case it got nowhere. When I went to see the publisher, I thought they might say, ‘Forget it Jo, this is ridiculous!’
‘I’m not going to send Ronnie a copy. He won’t read it anyway – I know him. He won’t read it. He’s not a book person. He read one book in 30 years while I was with him. His loss. It’s a girl’s book anyway – it’s a woman’s book.’
She added: ‘I got inspiration from things that happened to me but all the people in it are fiction. I just got inspired by everything around me. I’d sit and watch Sex Sent me to the ER! Stuff like that – I’d think, that would be a good idea for Flo.
‘I think my book is funny. It’s not a serious book. Silly things happen to her. I just hope people enjoy it for what it is. It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. God, my father would be so proud of me.’
Jo has previously shared the secret to her close relationship with her ex-husband Ronnie, whom she has remained on good terms with since their 2009 divorce.
Jo and Ronnie were married for 24 years (pictured in 1991), but divorced in 2009 when she discovered he’d been cheating on her with Ukranian waitress Ekaterina Ivanova
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Mail, Jo said: ‘The book is about how not to be a victim after a marriage. And how to pick yourself up and get out there’
She said: ‘I know that I can pick up the phone and ring him if there’s anything, like, trouble or anything like that.
‘But I could do that with Keith [Richards] as well. I saw Keith recently, with Patti [Hansen, his wife]. I’m fine with them all. I didn’t do anything wrong!
‘When you have children and grandchildren, I think it’s important… I like to know that I can say, “The kids have been, you know, even though they’re grown up. Have a word with them!”‘
In recent years, Jo has ditched the rock-and-roll lifestyle from her marriage to Ronnie for an eco-friendly countryside cottage.
Aside from WiFi, Jo said she more or less lives self-sufficiently and has traded in her days of drinking and joints for homegrown veg and is even creating a capsule supplement called Longevity to boost her health.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Jo admitted that she didn’t have an addictive personality which made it easier for her to walk away from the party lifestyle after it suddenly dawned on her one day that way of living wasn’t what she wanted.
