Karis Jagger

Short Biography

A long time ago, in an infamous display of penny-pinching, Mick Jagger’s lawyers tried to claim he was not the father of actress Marsha Hunt’s infant daughter, Karis.Karis, who graduated from Yale in 1992, was raised early on by her mother, model Marsha Hunt who battled with Jagger until he admitted his paternity when Karis was 12-years-old.After a degree in modern history at Yale, Karis dabbled in acting and played an ‘Armani model’ in One Night Stand in 1997.But she was far too shy for showbiz and soon moved behind the camera, as a production assistant.On the set of Patch Adams in 1998, she met Jonathan Watson, whom she married two years later.Mick gave her away, delighted at her good match. He has bonded with Jonathan over their mutual love of film-making and reportedly bought the couple their bungalow in LA as a wedding present.Since then, Jonathan has worked his way up the Hollywood ladder off his own back and landed jobs on big budget films, such as The Amazing Spider-Man, The Green Hornet and The Thomas Crown Affair.It seems that Karis’s is an old-fashioned marriage. She hasn’t worked since having Mazie in 2002, followed by Zak in 2004, choosing to remain out of the spotlight. She never gives interviews, which pleases her father.The rapprochement between Karis and Mick is a rather extraordinary tale. The Stones singer started an affair with her model mother, Marsha, under the nose of his then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull. He became so obsessed with Marsha, he wrote the song Brown Sugar in tribute to her.When he split with Marianne in 1969, Marsha moved into his Chelsea home. While Mick didn’t miss Marianne — he was repelled by her druggy neediness — he did miss her young son, Nicholas, to whom he’d become close.Swayed by Mick’s broodiness, Marsha agreed they should have a baby.Not long after she conceived, Mick turned cool. By the time Karis was born, in November 1970, Marsha had moved out and Mick had moved on to Bianca.He wasn’t at Karis’s birth and saw the baby only a handful of times. During one of these visits, he told Marsha he’d never loved her.Money soon became a divisive issue. Millionaire Mick had given Marsha £200 to tide her over initially, but refused to set up a requested £25, 000 trust fund for his daughter.Nor did he pay a £75 bill for two-year-old Karis’s stay in a private hospital after she’d been badly scalded by a cup of tea.Frustrated, Marsha served a paternity writ on Jagger and launched a court action. Eventually, in an out-of-court settlement, he agreed to pay into a £10, 000 trust fund for Karis, plus £500 a year towards her living costs.Bizarrely, his lawyers insisted Marsha sign papers saying he was not the father. She reluctantly agreed.By the time Karis was seven, they had moved to America, where her mother was reduced to claiming welfare handouts. Eventually, she hired a top lawyer and, in January 1979, an LA court ruled Jagger was Karis’s father. They ordered him to pay £1, 000-a-month child support.The academic Karis was largely in LA, where she attended a ‘school for the gifted’. A shy child, she certainly didn’t inherit her parents’ exhibitionist tendencies.Marsha always told her who her father was, pointing it out when she heard a Stones song on the radio. But away from the Jagger whirlwind, life proceeded in a normal fashion for Karis.Marsha credits this normality for her daughter’s steady lifestyle today.‘I read to her every night, sang to her, ’ she says. ‘I have no idea how different things would have been if Mick had been part of her life, but I know that the influence of celebrity, and all that goes with it, is difficult for children.’But at 12, when Karis was boarding at Bedales School in Hampshire, her father decided it was time he got to know his eldest child.It took some guts, admitted Marsha. ‘He had to step down from a pedestal and say “Yes, I’m her dad, come home with me, ” when he had publicly said something else.’Jerry Hall was the catalyst for this change of heart. She invited Karis to family events, and started a tradition, whereby Mick’s children would gather at some point in the summer holidays. Lizzie once sighed he liked to ‘line them all up’ and take a look at them.All the Jagger children attended Karis’s wedding and she’s particularly close to Jade, her maid of honour and whose daughters were her bridesmaids. Karis even helped to deliver Jade’s second daughter, Amba.Mick has quietly been there for all her landmarks. He saw Karis graduate in 1992; she was at his side in 2003 when he accepted a knighthood from Prince Charles. And she flew in for the funeral of Mick’s father, Joe, in 2006.