Jerry Hall could get £30m in satisfaction

When Jerry Hall's plain-speaking mother first met Mick Jagger she told her daughter he was the devil. Now that the former model is finally seeking a divorce, Mrs Hall won't have too much sympathy for Jagger.

While it was the Sun that first broke the story, Hall's solicitors (the same who acted for Princess Diana in her divorce) subsequently confirmed yesterday that proceedings had been issued. Ms Hall (42) is alleging that her husband wrecked the marriage by "committing adultery with an unnamed woman".

No prizes for guessing who. Last November newspaper reports suggested that Mick (55) was seeing Brazilian model Luciana Gimenze Morad (29), who is reportedly five months pregnant with the Rolling Stones front man's seventh child. This latest dalliance is said to have been the final straw in a turbulent eight-year marriage. They have been together a total of 21 years.

Jagger has been linked with other women (and some men) at regular intervals throughout their union. The "Jagger and Hall to Split" stories have surfaced regularly, filling acres of column space on slower news days. But this is the first time Hall has made it official. And with a claim estimated to be about £30 million - a fifth of the rocker's fortune and, if she is successful, the highest amount in a British divorce court - she may finally get some satisfaction.

The woman who is often dismissed in three words - leggy, Texan and blond - had humble beginnings in the deep south of the United States. The youngest daughter of a part-Indian truck driver who had a weakness for gambling and alcohol, she won a scholarship to her local college.

She went backpacking in France as a teenager armed with a wardrobe of clothes made by her mother. Lying on a beach in a pink crochet bikini, she was discovered by an agent and for a while was the toast of Paris fashion. Her success owed more to the stunning originality of her look and her never-ending limbs than conventional model good looks.

Her fame grew, and Brian Ferry of Roxy Music hired her to appear on the cover of his album, Siren, but events suggest he had more than music on his mind. Mrs Hall took to this prospective son-in-law instantly, saying he looked like Clark Gable, and they were engaged for two years.

But too much time apart pushed her into the arms of Ferry's friend, Jagger. And so began a roller-coaster of romantic uncertainty.

It soon became evident that Jagger was unable or unwilling to commit to one woman. Famously declaring she would be a maid in the parlour, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom was all very well, but even this was not enough to keep the ageing rock star at home.

Things came to a head six years ago when Jagger was seen with Carla Bruni in Thailand the day after Hall gave birth to their third child. A reconciliation followed before Bruni resurfaced again and they made up again. A definite pattern had emerged.

One interviewer recently surmised that Hall viewed her husband's regular infidelities as "an unavoidable downside of living with a world-famous sex symbol". She concentrated on positives like the fact that their relationship had lasted more than two decades; and less on the fact that perhaps his betrayal was more than just an occupational hazard.

And it is quite likely that this archetypal southern belle made good would have gone on rationalising her husband's serial adultery had he not made the mistake of impregnating his latest flame. Hall said: "I have said No to a lot of things in order to be there for something when Mick wants me to be. Still, a lot of times were difficult and unhappy."

So no more sacrifices. Just a whopping divorce settlement that is the modern lot of a wealthy woman scorned. Her husband is estimated to be worth about £150 million, and Princess Diana's legal team should prove just the people to get a slice of it.