Ronnie, the Rolling Stones and me

Rock star's third wife, Sally, is three decades younger than him - and at 36 she is now a 'grandmother' of eight.

Ronnie Wood pokes his head over the first floor balcony of his west London home and shouts down to the garden. "Have you seen my wisteria?" he asks his wife, motioning to the vines that are, in common with most things, at least twice his height. "It's grown three inches since yesterday!"

I am here to meet Sally Humphreys, aka the third Mrs Ronnie Wood. At 36, she is three decades her husband's junior, but in the words of Ronnie's stepson Jamie, she is "no groupie - I can assure you of that".

A theatre producer with her own production company based in London's West End, Humphreys is the daughter of two classical musicians, Colin and Alison - Ronnie is actually two years older than her mum.

She is quite a catch. For while many might be tempted to ask: "So Sally, what first attracted you to the multimillionaire rock star Ronnie Wood?", but perhaps the real question should be: "Ronnie, how on earth did you bag a broad like Sally?" They first met just over a decade ago, when Sally was working at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. "He was hanging his art work there," she says now, referring to her husband's lucrative second career.

Wood was still married to his second wife, Jo, at the time and then, in 2008, Wood was no longer married to Jo, but cavorting very publicly with waitresses and shop assistants and wannabe actresses, much to the horror of his children. Sally, however, wasn't waiting in the wings - she had her own boyfriends - and admits she was surprised when, in 2011, they became involved.

Age gap

"But he's on my level completely. He's a very nice and caring person. Oh God, don't use the word 'nice', it's so boring. He's very funny, kind and affectionate and welcoming."

Does she think about the age gap often? "Um, well, I know it's there. And I wish it wasn't, but it is. I think I had to say 'I can't do this because of the age', or I just had to let it go and take it all on board. At no point, years ago, did I say to myself: 'I think I'll go out with someone twice my age', but that is what has happened."

They were married a year and a half ago and Rod Stewart was the best man. Sally is credited with being - quite literally - a sobering influence on Ronnie. He was once described in a newspaper as "a man so debauched, so obliterated by drink and drugs, and such an all-round pain that [Keith] Richards once put a gun to his head and threatened to kill him". Ronnie's response was that actually, it was a knife. But he went in to rehab in 2010 (for the eighth time) and has been sober ever since.

Sally barely drinks and has never done drugs. "Come and see the non-drinking fridge!" she exclaims, taking me over to one of the many refrigerators in the house. It is filled with cans of Coke and energy drinks. Behind it is the cake room, where Sally bakes. She loves baking, and has just had a range of chocolate bars accepted at Harvey Nichols. "When I was on tour with Ronnie I spent a lot of time in hotels, talking to the chocolatiers who would leave these incredible confectionery creations - a giant pair of lips, a big record - in the rooms. I learned how to do it and decided to launch some Shakespeare-themed chocolates."

Backgammon and box sets

What do she and Ronnie do in the evening, I wonder? Their home bears all the hallmarks of being lived in by a pensioner who also happens to be in a rock band - there is a drum kit in the living room, ashtrays, cigarette packs and lighters everywhere, not to mention platinum discs. But there are also half-completed jigsaw puzzles all over the place. "We like them because they are very good for the brain," Sally says simply.

Backgammon is another passion of theirs. The Stones have just finished touring, and Sally organized a backgammon tournament for everyone. The whole band got involved, and it will resume when the tour strikes up again in October. What else, I ask? Knitting? Flower arranging? At this point, Ronnie comes down from his studio and answers my question simply. "Box sets," he says.

"Being on tour jetlags you," he explains. "You wake up every night about 9 pm, just at the time when you would be going on stage. So now, instead, we watch 19 murder mysteries in a row.

"Even with Jagger I go, 'Let's go and watch House of Cards. And he told us about Game of Thrones. We had to send someone out at 4 am when we were in Shanghai to get us the next series Breaking Bad is the best."

"When Aaron Paul (who played Jesse Pinkman in the show) came backstage at a gig, that caused more pandemonium than even the band," Sally says.

While still relatively young, she is aware that time is precious. She recalls a friend who died in a car crash when he was just 25. "Things can change in an instant. I had a very good friend who I was working with when I was getting together with Ronnie, who said, 'You don't have all the time in the world'. And he wasn't referring to Ronnie's age, but to me. And I thought that was quite a good point. I had to just make the decision to say, 'Actually, I'm with Ronnie, this is who we are and this is what we are doing together.'"

Aunt Sally

Sally is technically a grandmother - or at least a step - grandmother (Ronnie has eight grandchildren). Is that weird? "Well, one of them did say to me, 'What shall we call you?' and I could see them all sitting there trying to work it out. I just said, 'Call me Auntie Sally!' I thought that was probably better for everyone involved."

The big question is, of course, does she want her own kids? "Umm, yeah," she says, coyly. "Yeah, I do. There's no plans but there's no non-plans, if you see what I mean. As time ticks on, I would like children. I don't know if I will but I would like them, and if not then I feel lucky to have little people around me anyway."

The ticking of biological clocks seems to be a theme of our conversation. Later in our interview, when I ask where she would like to be in five years, she says: "A baby would be nice." Does Ronnie want another one? "Obviously we've spoken about it quite a lot, and you can ask him and his response would be, 'Well, that would be nice.' He's up for it. He's got a lot of friends that are older who have younger children and they all say it's fantastic and it keeps you young. I do think that would be wonderful, but I don't know if it will happen. I hope so."

(China Daily 08/09/2014 page24)