Famous Rockers That Left Their Wives For Younger Women

For as long as rock stars have been shredding guitars, there’s been a long line of admirers ready to jump into their arms. The whole “rock gods can have anyone they want” idea might sound like a tired stereotype, but let’s be real—it’s often true. So when one of them actually sticks with a single partner, you know that person must be something special. That is, until a few laugh lines show up and the rock star hits the reset button. (Let’s be honest, this trend seems to hit male musicians the hardest—female rockers usually don’t trade in their partners for younger models.)

Marriage vows don’t always stand a chance when midlife crises come knocking, especially if the musician still wants to feel like the coolest guy in the room. Maybe it’s about clinging to youth, avoiding adulting, or just plain ego. Whatever the reason, rock history is full of breakups where “forever” got swapped for someone a few decades younger.

Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar, the “Red Rocker” who famously “can’t drive 55,” made waves as a solo artist, rocked out with Montrose, and later became the lead singer of some little band called Van Halen. Long before his superstar days, Hagar married Betsy Berardi in 1968. She stuck by him through the wild ups and downs of rock stardom. They were married for over 25 years and had two kids together before calling it quits in 1994. The reason? A new chapter with a new woman—Kari Karte.

Hagar met Kari, then in her twenties, at a friend’s birthday party. A year later, in 1995, they tied the knot despite a 20-year age gap. The couple went on to have two kids and, as of mid-2025, they’ve been going strong for 30 years. When Hagar got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024, he joked, “Kari’s been hanging out with me now for 32 years. And I mean, she’s been holding on for dear life. It’s like riding on a rocket ship being around me, I can’t help myself” (via People). Betsy, it seems, just couldn’t hang on for that wild ride.

Sting
It might feel like Sting—real name Gordon Sumner—has always been with his wife Trudie Styler, but before their long romance began, he was married to someone else. From 1976 to 1984, Sting was married to Irish actress Frances Tomelty, right through the rise and fall of The Police. Here’s where things get complicated: Styler was Tomelty’s best friend, and Sting had known her since 1977.

While still married, Sting started a relationship with Styler, who was six years younger than his wife. In 1983, Styler became pregnant, and not long after, Tomelty filed for divorce. In his memoir Broken Music (via Mamamia), Sting admitted, “I had been in love with [Styler] ever since I met her,” hinting at just how tangled things really were.
As for Styler, she kept it brief in a 2002 Guardian interview: “I don’t talk about it because it’s tied up with, you know, his ex-wife… Neither of us are proud of a situation that happened — it just happened. We loved each other… and that’s our life story.”

Wayne Coyne
In 2012, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne surprised fans by announcing his split from J. Michelle Martin-Coyne, his partner of nearly 25 years. What started as a love story ended with a messy breakup—complete with debates over how “married” they really were, how to split their stuff, and claims that Coyne had been unfaithful. While Oklahoma’s no-fault divorce laws made those cheating allegations irrelevant in court, that didn’t mean they weren’t true. They absolutely were.

Coyne had gotten involved with Katy Weaver, a fan nearly three decades younger than him. When the divorce was finalized in 2014, Coyne was 53, and many onlookers chalked the whole thing up to a textbook midlife crisis. But, as life tends to prove, things are rarely that straightforward. Coyne and Weaver eventually tied the knot in 2019, and by mid-2025, they’ve built a new chapter together with two kids. Not quite a rock and roll cliché—but definitely a headline-worthy love story.

Ric Ocasek
Ric Ocasek was the kind of brilliantly oddball artist who just wouldn’t quit until he cracked the music scene. After a string of flops with bandmate Benjamin Orr in the ’70s, he finally found the winning formula with The Cars—teaming up with Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes, and David Robinson. Their cool blend of rock, pop, and New Wave paired perfectly with Ocasek’s quirky charm and cryptic lyrics.

In 1984, during the band’s prime, Ocasek met 19-year-old Czech model Paulina Porizkova while filming the music video for “Drive.” Sparks flew instantly. “We fell near-immediately in love,” Porizkova later told Rolling Stone. One small hitch: Ocasek was still married to Suzanne, his wife of over 10 years.

The love affair lasted until 1988, when Ocasek finally got divorced. He married Porizkova a year later. At the time, their 16-year age gap caused a stir—but it turns out it was even wider. Ocasek had knocked five years off his age in a 1979 interview and never corrected it. When he passed in 2019, fans discovered he was actually 21 years older than Porizkova.

Mick Jagger
As the frontman of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger was practically a magnet for attention—and not just for his music. In 1970, after a concert in Paris, a friend introduced him to Bianca Pérez-Mora Macías. Sparks flew fast. They got married soon after, and she was already expecting Mick’s first child. For much of the ’70s, they looked like a rock ‘n roll dream team. Bianca even put up with his on-tour flings—until model Jerry Hall came along.

Jagger met Hall in 1976 at the legendary Studio 54. She was 13 years younger, and the two jumped into an affair that eventually pushed Bianca to file for divorce in 1978. Not long after, Hall became the next Mrs. Jagger—until 1999, when another model, Luciana Gimenez, entered the picture. Jagger’s affair with her and the birth of a love child ended that marriage, too.
True to his name, the Rolling Stone kept rolling. He now has eight children, including his youngest, Deveraux, born in 2016 with 37-year-old ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick.

Ronnie Wood
Ronnie Wood wasn’t about to let Mick Jagger be the only Rolling Stone with a headline-grabbing love life. The guitarist was married to Jo Wood for 24 years starting in 1985, and they had two kids together. But things took a turn when Ronnie left Jo for someone much, much younger—Ekaterina Ivanova, a Russian cocktail waitress more than 40 years his junior.

Ronnie moved Ivanova into his home in late 2009 after abruptly leaving his wife, but the whirlwind romance fizzled fast. By 2012, it was over—and Ivanova wasn’t exactly nostalgic about her time with the rocker. Speaking to Hello! magazine (via The Standard), she called the relationship a “dark fairytale” and compared Wood to an “evil goblin king.” Ouch.

Still, she had kind words for Jo Wood. “I have a lot of respect for Jo now, because he’s a handful,” Ivanova admitted. “I don’t know how she did it. I couldn’t. She seems to be better off without him, way happier.”

Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon were more than just bandmates in Sonic Youth—they were partners in life and music. Before forming the legendary indie rock band in 1981, they were already a couple. Over the next few decades, they helped shape the sound of alternative rock, influencing artists like Nirvana, Beck, and Dinosaur Jr., while also building a 27-year marriage. Sadly, that long partnership unraveled when Moore got involved with book editor Eva Prinz, who was 20 years younger. The affair didn’t just end the marriage—it also marked the end of Sonic Youth.

Kim Gordon didn’t hold back. In a 2015 interview with Billboard, she revealed she had known Prinz even before the affair and wasn’t a fan. As she wrote in her memoir The Girl in a Band, the situation hit hard. Moore, on the other hand, kept it low-key in his own memoir Sonic Life. Talking to The New York Times in 2023, he said, “I didn’t take any umbrage with it… I purposely decided I have no real reason to share those feelings.”

Julian Casablancas
Julian Casablancas, the voice behind The Strokes and later the Voidz, skyrocketed to fame in 2001 when Is This It turned the band into indie rock royalty. But fame never quite seemed to sit comfortably with him. In 2004, while still riding that wave, he surprised fans by marrying Juliet Joslin—not a celebrity, but his band’s former manager. They kept things pretty private and stayed together for about 15 years.

Then in 2019, Casablancas pulled what might be his most stereotypical rock star move—he quietly split from Joslin and began dating Kaya Nichols, a much younger roadie from his band’s crew. He didn’t confirm the divorce or the relationship until 2020, when fans and media started noticing Nichols regularly by his side.

Nichols has stayed out of the spotlight, never confirming her age, though she’s believed to be around 20 years younger than Casablancas. As of mid-2025, the couple hasn’t made any public appearances or updates, so it’s anyone’s guess if they’re still together.