MANDY SMITH AND BILL WYMAN: THE SADDEST STORY EVER TOLD. BY SANDRA HARRIS.

 MANDY SMITH AND BILL WYMAN: THE SADDEST STORY EVER TOLD.

BY SANDRA HARRIS.

In a week that sees Russell Brand sentenced to ten years in prison for rape and sexual assault and David Walliams 'outed' in an ITV documentary as a sexual harasser of women, I found myself watching a different documentary, this one on YouTube called The Dark Story of Bill Wyman and Mandy Smith. It left me deeply depressed and genuinely tearful.

This programme only seemed to have access to a limited number of stock photos which it showed on rotation but, by the time I realised this, I was already hooked on the story. 

The tagline of Mandy's book, It's All Over Now, named for a Rolling Stones hit, reads as follows: Seduced at 13, Married at 19, Divorced by 21: My Life with the Rolling Stones. That gives you the story right there in a nutshell.

Mandy was an ordinary schoolgirl of thirteen when in 1984 she accompanied her older sister Nicole to the BPI Awards, a shindig for the British Recorded Music Industry's trade association.

Here she met Bill Wyman, the bass guitarist for the Rolling Stones, who was forty-seven at the time. In his 1990 autobiography, he wrote of her: 'She took my breath away... She was a woman at thirteen.' Did he write that last bit to justify-slash-minimise the fact that he had a sexual relationship with a teenage girl...?

Mandy's life was derailed immediately and permanently. Her attendance at school was patchy after meeting Bill and she eventually left without qualifications. She was put on the Pill at fourteen.

She wouldn't have ever had the opportunity for a silly first crush or first love with a boy her own age because some rich old geezer on the cusp of a midlife crisis fancied the clout of having a drop-dead gorgeous teenage trophy girlfriend.

Her single mother Patsy, who later married Bill Wyman's son Stephen who was older than Mandy, was only too delighted to hand her beautiful innocent daughter over to Wyman.

His fame, wealth and influence was too irresistible a draw for her. No-one stood up for Mandy. No-one ever stopped the crazy carousel and said, stop, this is wrong!

I have no doubt that Mandy initially was thrilled to be initiated into this sexy, sophisticated world of showbiz parties, designer outfits and jewellery, paparazzi, trips abroad, yachts and country houses. She even got a brief pop career out of it. Who wouldn't want that? Wyman was her escape hatch from the mundanity of her everyday life.

When I myself saw their wedding photos in the newspapers in 1989, I nearly died of envy at how gloriously beautiful and happy she looked, how lucky she was to have been plucked from obscurity by a rich, famous man and catapulted into this fairytale lifestyle. I probably wasn't the only silly young girl thinking this stuff at the time.

But, behind the scenes, by the time their wedding came around, Mandy was already grievously ill. The media feeding frenzies, the stress and loneliness of her life with Wyman, the constant worry that he was tired of her and pulling away from her- he was- caused an as yet undiagnosed digestive disorder to blossom, and also an eating disorder that made her weight plummet to a shockingly skeletal six stone.

Bill Wyman didn't want the sick, unhappy stressed-out Mandy, even though his own actions may have contributed to her state of poor health. He wanted the fun-loving, sexy bubbly Mandy that was gone forever. Mandy's fate was sealed.

What followed was a divorce, a settlement (only a fraction of his actual worth) and the air-brushing of Mandy from Wyman's life. She was lifted right out of it and dropped back into her old life, left to shift for herself as best she could. The levels of trauma and hurt must have been off the fucking charts.

What about the rest of the Rolling Stones? Their wives and girlfriends? The people who attended Wyman's and Mandy's wedding? Where were they in all this? Bill Wyman was marrying a woman he'd 'known' since she was thirteen.

Did anyone ever say anything to anyone, even to Wyman privately, about the inappropriateness of the relationship? Or was Wyman just considered a stud, a dirty dawg, while Mandy was a very lucky girl to have attracted his attention?

According to the documentary, the other members of the Rolling Stones were uncomfortable about Mandy's presence and largely ignored her. She doesn't seem to have had any allies amongst Wyman's circle, and why would she, when her own mother wouldn't even stand up for her?

Two years after divorcing Mandy, Wyman married a model and long-time friend called Suzanne Accosta, with whom he had three daughters. Mandy is almost a footnote in his Wikipedia entry. She takes up two lines.

There's a clip of Wyman and Mandy on Terry Wogan's chat show on YouTube. It was their wedding day, the second of June, 1989. Mandy is softly-spoken and comes across as genuinely sweet, shy and lovely. Wyman is awkward and stiff, two pats on her hand the only signs of affection he shows her throughout.

Do these big television and movie stars, rock stars and other media celebrities ever stop to think about the damage they're inflicting on the women and girls they use and abuse? No, of course they don't, which is why we're in the state we are today.

And what about the people who see what's going on, who see the grooming and abuse of underage girls taking place, who actively enable it and shout ribald, laddish go-on-my-son type encouragement from the sidelines? What about them indeed...

These big stars have power and influence and they don't always use it for good. One of the women who accused Russell Brand has had her story ripped apart on social media. Why? Because, before the alleged rape took place, she'd earlier gone backstage with him at a gig and 'eaten out his ass.'

His what, sorry? This is what he made her do, mere minutes or even seconds after meeting him? I nearly threw up. She probably felt she had to do it, distasteful as it undoubtedly was, because of the power imbalance that existed between them. I have no doubt she wanted to meet him, but 'eat out his ass?' That shouldn't even be a fucking thing.

Anyway, Mandy Smith was not a fame-hungry gold-digger and, even if she was, she paid a terrible price for it. She nearly paid with her life. She deserves so much peace and happiness now after everything that happened to her. I pray she gets it.