Jo Wood: Turning 60? I cant even bear to think about it
THE rock chick is more than happy to talk about her wild past and family life - just don't ask her what age she is
WITH her earthy laugh and warm Essex accent, former model and rock chick turned television personality Jo Wood is the kind of woman you can ask just about anything. Well, almost anything.
There’s one subject she definitely doesn’t want to talk about and surprisingly it isn’t her ex-husband, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie.
The couple divorced in 2009 after 35 years together, a split prompted by Ronnie’s liaison with a teenage cocktail waitress. Since then she has written about their rock ’n’ roll life together in her autobiography Hey Jo, and he has remarried.
Now, six years on, she seems to be well and truly over all the heartache. So if it’s not the errant rock star ex that’s off limits, then what is it? Jo is celebrating a milestone birthday a week on Sunday. “No,” she squeals, when I mention the big six-o. “I can’t stand to hear that word. It’s horrible.”
It’s fair to say that Jo is not exactly embracing the idea of entering her 60s. “I just can’t believe it,” she says. “I just don’t feel like I should be that age.”
And she certainly doesn’t look it either. Slim and bright eyed, Jo looks great and it is no surprise that as a teenager, she took the modelling world by storm.
But her youthful looks are not simply the result of good genes. “I’ve really looked after myself,” she insists.
“It’s what everyone should do.” But it hasn’t always been that way, as her younger years were an endless stream of parties.
I used to worry sometimes that they could smell the alcohol on my breath in the mornings but they all had an amazing childhood
Jo’s rather nomadic life with Ronnie took her to Los Angeles and New York and for a while she embraced her husband’s hedonistic drink and drugs lifestyle.
But she stopped pretty quickly when she almost died from a ruptured appendix in 1991, experienced a healthy living epiphany and then turned completely organic. These days she doesn’t eat dairy and barely any wheat, refuses to touch anything processed and hates fast food.
“I haven’t had a takeaway burger for more than 20 years now and I feel great,” she says laughing. But joking aside, Jo is passionate about healthy eating.
“You really are what you eat,” she says.
“This is a message I have drummed into my kids and I’m proud to say they have all taken it on board.” Jo’s children, Jamie, 41, from her first marriage, Leah, 36 and Tyrone, 30, who she had with Ronnie, and stepson Jesse, 38, who is expecting his second child with his TV presenter wife Fearne Cotton, will all be joining her for a huge Mother’s Day and birthday bash at a hotel in Bath.
“My mum and my sister and brothers and all the grandchildren will be there too,” says Jo. “It’s going to be fantastic. “Family is so important to me. It is everything really.”
She had Jamie, now the owner of an art gallery and a father of three, when she was just 18.
While she admits that she didn’t have much idea what she was doing at that age, her love for Jamie carried her through. Her stepson Jesse was only one when she met him and she loved him from the start. “He is a gentle soul and he has turned into a wonderful man.
"He really does feel like a part of me, just like the others.” But it is former model and musician Leah, her only daughter, who is, she says, most like her. “We both have a rather cheeky outlook on life and we love to have fun and to look on the bright side,” she says.
“She lives around the corner from my house in London and we are very close.” Jo has eight grandchildren, ranging in age from 15 to almost two, and along with Fearne and Jesse’s new addition, Jamie and his wife Jodie are also expecting another child.
“I absolutely adore them all,” says Jo, who admits that yesterday she spent most of the day curled up in her wardrobe playing hide and seek with her two young grandsons Leo and Kobe. “It was great fun,” she giggles. “I love all the playing and the cuddles.”
But she insists she is strict too. “I tell them off for playing football in the house and I simply won’t tolerate bad manners,” she says. Jo tries to see as much of her grandchildren as she can and loves being involved in their lives.
“I wouldn’t see my grandmother from one year to the next,” she recalls. “But I want to be close to my grandchildren.” If her autobiography is anything to go by, Jo and Ronnie were real hell-raisers when their children were young.
So, does she have any regrets? “I used to worry sometimes that they could smell the alcohol on my breath in the mornings but they all had an amazing childhood,” she says.
“I don’t think it did them any harm.” Jo’s younger son Tyrone hasn’t had children yet but she says the other three are wonderful parents. “What impresses me most is the way men and women share the responsibility these days,” she adds. “I think that’s great. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind to leave a baby with Ronnie.”
SHE mentions his name without a hint of malice and as she approaches her milestone birthday it is very clear that she has put the pain of the past behind her.
“I am someone who likes to look forward,” she stresses. And she is full of plans for the future. Jo plans to relaunch her organic beauty range and to write an organic cookery book. She also hopes to bring some romance back into her life. “I am actually seeing a lovely, lovely man at the moment,” she says coyly.
“He is not in the entertainment industry and he treats me very well but it is early days so I can’t say too much.” And with that, she is off to meet her personal trainer before picking up her granddaughter from school. Turning 60 has never looked like so much fun.
? Jo and Leah Wood feature in the exhibition Mum: A Snapshot, which has been curated by Terry O’Neill and notonthehighstreet. com. The exhibition runs at White Space Gallery, London from March 14-15 in celebration of Mother’s Day. I
