Marianne Faithfull: A Life of Music, Love, and Resilience

Marianne Faithfull outlived the 1960s that made her famous—surviving addiction, illness, and exile to release 22 solo albums over five decades. She died on 30 January 2025 in London at 78, with a career still being re-examined (The Guardian (UK daily)).

Born: 29 December 1946, London · Died: 30 January 2025, London, age 78 · Breakthrough: “As Tears Go By” (1964) · Son: Nicholas Dunbar · Notable relationship: Mick Jagger (1960s)

A handful of facts anchor the obituary coverage, and the most striking thing about them is the gap between the 1964 pop single and the five-decade career that followed.

The pattern here is clear: the public record is thin on the messy middle—the years between the hit single and the comeback album—and thick on the tabloid peaks.

Why Did Mick Jagger Dump Marianne Faithfull?

The popular story is that Mick Jagger ended the relationship with one cruel act; Faithfull’s own account is messier and sadder. She left her marriage and the family home to move in with Jagger, a scandal that defined Swinging London (BBC News (UK broadcaster)). By her own later account, she was not Jagger’s first Rolling Stone: she slept with three of them before choosing “the lead singer.”

The romance ran five years, from roughly 1965 to 1970, as the Evening Standard (London daily) noted. Jagger ended it in 1970, by Faithfull’s account, after the trauma of a miscarriage and her deepening drug use — a version of events she laid out at length in her 1994 memoir Faithfull (The Guardian (UK daily)).

The implication is that the dump was less a single event than a slow unraveling—a process that took five years and left both lives permanently altered.

Did Marianne Faithfull Love Mick Jagger?

• Her own answer: yes, without hesitation. She called Jagger the love of her life (Evening Standard (London daily))
• Her memoir Faithfull describes the bond as both ecstatic and destructive (The Guardian (UK daily))

By her testimony, it was a consuming, sometimes toxic bond — two twenty-somethings at the centre of the 1960s circus. The split, she insisted for decades, broke something in her.

Who Was the Love of Mick Jagger’s Life?

• Bianca Jagger, his first wife, during the 1970s (People (celebrity outlet))
• Jerry Hall, his partner for more than two decades (People (celebrity outlet))

People’s rundown of Jagger’s romantic history makes the same point: Faithfull was formative, but she was never the only contender. The pattern: Faithfull got the songs; the marriages went elsewhere.

That lesson—she rebuilt, despite the loss—is the thread that runs through every later decade of her story.

What Illness Did Marianne Faithfull Have?

Faithfull’s last decades were as much a medical story as a musical one. The Los Angeles Times (US daily) catalogued a grim sequence: breast cancer diagnosed in 2006 and treated with surgery, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hepatitis C contracted in the 1990s and cleared by 2008, and a 2020 case of COVID-19 whose long-term effects shadowed her final years.

• Breast cancer, diagnosed 2006, treated with surgery (Los Angeles Times (US daily))
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (Los Angeles Times (US daily))
• Hepatitis C, contracted in the 1990s, cleared by 2008 (Los Angeles Times (US daily))
• COVID-19 in 2020, with long-term effects lasting until her death (Los Angeles Times (US daily))

Was Marianne Faithfull a Smoker?

• Yes — heavily, for decades
• She acknowledged the habit contributed to her COPD

The smoking was part of a larger pattern of self-destruction in her 1960s and 1970s years. The implication: her health battles were inseparable from her later art — the frailer her body got, the more fully her voice carried.

Her health narrative, like her music, was a series of comebacks—each scarred but still performing.

Who Was the Love of Marianne Faithfull’s Life?

• Mick Jagger — the relationship she called the defining love of her life (Evening Standard (London daily))
• John Dunbar — her husband from 1965, father of her son (BBC News (UK broadcaster))
• Alain Delon — a 1960s romance she chronicled in her memoir (The Guardian (UK daily))

By her own testimony, the answer never changed: Mick Jagger, even after everything.

“He was the love of my life, but it was a disaster from the start.”

Marianne Faithfull, on Mick Jagger (Evening Standard (London daily))

The paradox runs through her whole career: the same man who broke her heart in 1970 was still the headline in 2025. What this means: Faithfull’s answer never changed, even when the cost of that answer nearly killed her.

Did Mick Jagger Have a Child with Marianne Faithfull?

No. This is one of the most persistent rumours in Rolling Stones lore, and the answer is straightforward: Jagger was not the father of Faithfull’s child (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).

That restoration—the son who was not Jagger’s—becomes the key to unpicking her family story.

Who Fathered Marianne Faithfull’s Son?

• John Dunbar, the man she married in 1965 (BBC News (UK broadcaster))
• Their son, Nicholas Dunbar, was born soon after the wedding (BBC News (UK broadcaster))

Did Marianne Faithfull Raise Her Son?

• Not single-handedly — Nicholas was largely raised by his father and grandparents while Faithfull was in the grip of addiction
• Faithfull was open about the regrets of that period in interviews and in her memoir (The Guardian (UK daily))

She left the family home when Nicholas was a toddler to move in with Jagger — a choice she later framed as a disaster for herself as a mother. Her addiction years cost her time with him, and she never pretended otherwise.

How Many Children Did Marianne Faithfull Have?

• One child: Nicholas Dunbar (BBC News (UK broadcaster))
• Her marriage to John Dunbar produced no other children (BBC News (UK broadcaster))

The pattern: the rumour mill wanted to write Jagger into the family tree, but the real story was simpler and sadder — one son, raised largely by his father.

What Song Made Marianne Faithfull Famous?

“As Tears Go By” — written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (People (celebrity outlet)) and recorded by Faithfull in 1964 when she was 17 (Billboard (music trade)) — made her a star before she was old enough to vote.

But her story did not end with that single. The Guardian’s obituary counted 22 solo albums; the most important came in 1979 with Broken English, a jagged new-wave record that announced the former pop ingénue as a serious, uncompromising artist.

How Tall Was Marianne Faithfull?

• About 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) — the figure listed in standard celebrity profiles

The height trivia keeps surfacing because everything else about her presence was outsized. It is one of the few numbers that stayed stable across a very unstable life.

Listening to her that way—from the glossy start to the ragged middle—reveals the arc she actually lived.

Key Moments in Marianne Faithfull’s Life

What follows is the abbreviated shape of a very public life, from a Hampstead childhood to a London death.

• 1946 — born in Hampstead, London (Los Angeles Times (US daily))
• 1964 — recorded “As Tears Go By” at 17 (Billboard (music trade))
• 1965 — married John Dunbar; son Nicholas born (BBC News (UK broadcaster))
• 1966–1970 — relationship with Mick Jagger, five years that reshaped her life (Evening Standard (London daily))
• 1970 — split with Jagger; years of heroin addiction and homelessness follow (BBC News (UK broadcaster))
• 1979 — released Broken English (The Guardian (UK daily))
• 1994 — published the memoir Faithfull (The Guardian (UK daily))
• 2006 — diagnosed with breast cancer (Los Angeles Times (US daily))
• 2020 — contracted COVID-19; long-term effects followed (People (celebrity outlet))
• 30 January 2025 — died in London at 78 (The Guardian (UK daily))

The pattern in these dates: every comeback followed a collapse, and she got back up one more time than she fell.

What’s Confirmed, What’s Still Unclear

With a life this public, some facts are settled and others remain stubbornly soft. Here is the honest split.

The honest read: the confirmed column is short and solid; the unclear column is where the memoirs and the myths live.

Marianne Faithfull, in Her Own Words

“He was the love of my life, but it was a disaster from the start.”

Marianne Faithfull, on Mick Jagger (Evening Standard (London daily))

“She was part of my life for so long.”

Mick Jagger, on Faithfull’s death (People (celebrity outlet))

Between those two quotes sits the whole arc: a reckless young woman who chose the lead singer, and a legend who, at the end, called her a friend.

Why Faithfull’s Story Still Matters

For anyone trying to understand how the 1960s created and consumed its icons, Faithfull’s career is a case study in the difference between a muse and an artist: the muse gets remembered in someone else’s song, while the artist leaves 22 albums and a memoir that refuses to flinch (The Guardian (UK daily)). The same arc of image destruction and reinvention shows up in Vivienne Westwood: Life, Style, Controversies, and Legacy and Lana Del Rey: The Real Story Behind Her Sobriety and Sexuality. For a new generation arriving through streaming playlists, the implication is clear: give “As Tears Go By” its due, then spend the night with Broken English — or the memory of Marianne Faithfull shrinks back into the Jagger footnote she spent 50 years escaping.

Her story remains urgent because it asks a question that never gets old: what does it mean to be the subject of a myth, and how does one break out? Faithfull’s answer was to keep making work until the work spoke louder than the headline.

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