Assisi with daughter Ezra (left). Jade Jagger with son Ray. Fashion Editor: Camilla Pole.
On an early-spring afternoon in a North London photo studio, two glamorous mothers are on a mission to distract their chubby babies. "Pass her the sports section, if you wouldn't mind," says Assisi Jackson, nodding toward her daughter, Ezra, who loves to chew on the brightly colored newsprint. At their side are Assisi's mother, Jade Jagger, and her son, Ray, who is gnawing doggedly on a toy raccoon. Ray is a month younger than Ezra, who is technically his niece, though he's clearly winning on the dentition front, with four teeth to her one.
As the camera whirs, someone—maybe Jade, a picture of chic motherhood with her mahogany tan and alpine heels—starts crooning "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," though perhaps it should have been "Jumpin' Jack Flash." After all, these are the new Jagger kids, cherished additions to the dynasty of Sir Mick—or "Pappy," as his progeny call him. "He loves babies," Jade says of her father, now 71. "He'll go out in the garden and play hide-and-seek or read to them. And he's learned how to give really good pep talks, and be really supportive about their education."
Mick's fifth grandchild and first great-grandchild are easy to tell apart: Ray is so cherubically blond that he appears to have mislaid his wings, while Ezra has inherited the Latin beauty of her great-grandmother Bianca—who is apparently so smitten that after Ezra's christening, she insisted on skipping the party to give the baby a bath (Assisi captured the moment with a Polaroid, which she treasures.) "Ezra sometimes pulls what we call her 'Bianca face,' when she's trying to figure out what's going on," says Assisi. "It's very intense."
From left: Mick and Bianca with Jade, circa 1974; A Warhol Polaroid of Mick and Jade, 1973; Bianca and Jade in London, 1979
A pocket Venus in her stockinged feet, Assisi looks like a sun-kissed Snow White, with dark hair and brows to match. Ezra is her first child with boyfriend Alex Key, a young chef who tears back and forth to London from the north coast of Cornwall, where they live in a converted barn on his parents' farm. "Everything is much slower there. I want Ezra to go to the local school and play on the beach," says Assisi, who had a similarly idyllic childhood in Ibiza, running on the sandy hills with her younger sister, Amba, now 19. Jade was a relaxed mother: "I didn't much like school, so my mum let me find out which direction I wanted to go in," says Assisi. Amba, on the other hand, excelled academically and currently is studying at Pratt Institute in New York. "She's working her socks off," Assisi says proudly. "I was more into socializing in my teens, but then I calmed down when I started my homeopathy course at university." She is now a certified practitioner.
Jade's upbringing was quite different. Born in Paris in 1971, she spent her earliest years in London's star-studded Cheyne Walk. When her parents split in 1978, she moved to Manhattan with her mother, who was hailed as the queen of the Studio 54 disco crowd. "There weren't that many kids around, so I was adopted by Andy [Warhol], Halston, Calvin [Klein]...I would go play at Andy's studio and happily wee on his paintings," Jade recalls with a laugh, referring to the artist's practice of preparing canvases with copper paint that was then oxidized with urine. Later she was dispatched to a British boarding school, and then expelled—"Wrongfully," she adds, "but at 43, one should probably give it up." By the time she was 20, she was in a long-term relationship with artist Piers Jackson and pregnant with Assisi. "I don't regret a second of my childhood," she says. "It was lonely sometimes, but my mum surrounded me with incredible people, and I was very integrated into what was going on with the adults. I've tried to give my girls some of that—the travel, the culture. They didn't go to boarding school, but we might consider it for Ray."
The coincidence of Jade's and Assisi's parallel pregnancies—they gave birth at ages 42 and 21, respectively—could not have suited them better. Along with Amba, they have operated as a girl gang ever since Jade and Piers parted in 1996, though as a child, Assisi often begged for a younger brother. "I seem to recall it was a dog you wanted," chips Jade. "Always another dog."
Married since 2012 to graphic designer Adrian Fillary, Jade kept her pregnancy quiet at first, not wanting to overshadow her daughter's thrilling news. She also felt protective. "Like any mother, I was worried for Assisi, but I couldn't ever feel that she was too young, as I'd had her when I was even younger," she points out, adding that she was confident in Assisi's maternal instincts. "She could see that I knew she'd be great."
From left: Jade and Assisi in London, 2005; Bianca and Jade in New York, 1988; Mick and Jade in London, 1999; Assisi with grandmother Bianca in London, 2011.
Both mother and daughter had home births. After three days of labor, Ezra was delivered naturally, with Jade and Amba in attendance. "Ezra feels like my daughter who just isn't living with me," Jade says. "When you have your own child at the same time, it's harder to think in terms of generations." Her son arrived a month later, in London. "I have a special bond with Ray," says Assisi. "I'm more than happy to change his nappies."
Meanwhile, Jade continues to juggle her jewelry line with interior design projects, and she hopes her children will find similarly rewarding paths. "I want them to be happy, and find something that they enjoy and work hard at," she says. "It's important they understand there is no great achievement without effort." For now, though, Ray is slumbering peacefully, and Assisi plucks a floret of broccoli from Ezra's plump little hand, worried that it might be too big to swallow. "This is what matters to me now, family and taking care of my daughter," Assisi says firmly. "I'm blessed to be able to do that." The Jagger clan, above all, is one that looks after its own.
Photograph by Michael Avedon. Hair: Paul Donovan; makeup: Jenny Coombs for Cle de Peau Beaute; manicures: Zarra Celik; production: 10-4inc London. Special thanks to Spring Studios, London.
This article originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of Harper's BAZAAR.
