Mandy Smith tried to be a singer, a model, and a business executive but she remains known to the public for her relationship with Rolling Stones bass player, Bill Wyman. The two married in 1989. He was 53. She was 19. That marriage only lasted a couple of years.But Smith has acknowledged in an interview with the Daily Mail that their sexual relationship had begun several years earlier when Wyman was 47 and she was 14.
Mandy Smith now realizes how much of a victim she was. Indeed, she has announced her support of legislation that would increase the age of consent in the U.K.
"It's not about being physically mature. It's emotional maturity that matters," Smith explains. "I don't think most 16-year-olds are ready. I think the age of consent should be raised to 18 at a minimum, and some girls aren't even ready then. I know, I know. People will find that odd, coming from me. But I think I do know what I'm talking about here. You are still a child, even at 16."
She then poignantly adds, "You can never get that part of your life, your childhood, back. I never could."
Almost three decades have passed since Mandy - blonde, precocious, the original Wild Child - and her equally striking sister Nicola became regulars on the London club scene. Barely into their teens, but dressing and acting twice their age, they were always going to attract male attention. No one could have predicted that their giggling introduction to a man who called himself only 'Bill' would create a controversy which still continues to astonish.
Mandy turns 40 this year and is a mother. She is still beautiful, with a wide smile and high cheekbones. Her gaunt frame is only emphasised when she draws her cardigan around her. She jokes about doing everything in her life 'the wrong way round, back to front, messed up'. When you recall those teenage pictures of her - unequivocally womanly - you can't help but agree...
She lives with her sister Nicola, who had her own negative experience of fame on the arm of footballer Teddy Sheringham. They were engaged, but she found the pressure of life as a Wag - especially the part where complete strangers slipped their phone numbers into his pocket in front of her - unnerving.
Many people who encounter Mandy now know nothing of her headline-grabbing past. It emerged this week that her new life includes mentoring young girls at a church. She rediscovered religion in 2005 and she says it saved her life. She utters phrases such as: 'God is the only man in my life now...'
Now, you'd imagine that with a past like Mandy's, nothing about today's teenagers would shock. Surprisingly, everything does. She says she can't walk through Manchester city centre at night without shuddering. "My concern is that everything - clothes, films, talk - is so sexualised. The girls I talk to are under pressure to be a certain way. They think they should be having sex, living a certain life. I try to say to them: "Hold on. You don't have to do this..."
Her church work is unpaid, but no less rewarding. 'I think my faith was always there, but it's become hugely important now.'
What do the youngsters she meets make of her story? Mostly, she doesn't tell them. 'But I would, if it helped.' She has yet to encounter a teenager who comes to her with a tale of falling in love with a man 30 years her senior, pop legend or not.
And if she did? 'Oh my goodness, that is such a difficult one. There are confidentiality issues, but if she was at risk I would have to tell someone.
Some things are black and white, aren't they?'
