Ron and Jo Wood at their daughter’s wedding right before they split on 6/21/08. Credit: WENN

Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood’s long suffering wife, Jo, is mad as hell and she’s hitting her estranged husband where it hurts: his wallet. When Ron, 61, publicly humilated Jo this summer by taking up with a 19-year-old cocktail waitress while he was supposed to be in rehab for alcohol, he basically opened himself up to an all-out war - and now, it looks like that’s what he’s getting, to the tune of 50 million pounds or $92 million USD.

Ronnie Wood faces a £50million divorce pay-out after his wife Jo called in lawyers in exasperation at his continuing relationship with a Russian 20-year-old.

Friends have revealed how humiliated Jo has taken legal advice about the break-down of her 23-year marriage and is understood to have been told she is in a ‘terrifically strong position’.

Apart from taking half of Wood’s £75 million fortune in the split, Jo, 53, is also believed to be angling for a portion of the Rolling Stones guitarist’s future earnings since she has consistently saved his career from disappearing into a haze of drink and drugs.

The revelation came as Wood, 61, was photographed enjoying a romantic meal with young Russian Ekaterina Ivanova at the fashionable London restaurant Locanda Locatelli…

Wife Jo is now understood to be gunning for up to half his fortune, plus as much as a further 20 per cent on top of that for the years of work she has put in as his executive assistant.

Jo has proven indispensable to him over the years he has spent in the band.

She has gone on every tour with him since they first met, picking out his outfits and cooking him organic food.

She has also been pivotal in his business success. She has a controlling stake in the couple’s finances and acts as her husband’s personal management assistant on deals.

She is also a joint director of his music empire Rockyarch and company secretary of Wood’s paintings business Scream Art.

The couple have a range of enormous homes around the world, including a £12 million mansion in Kingston upon Thames, a castle in Clane, County Kildare worth £4.5 million and a £250,000 cottage in Devon….

Wood’s relationship with Miss Ivanova shows no signs of slowing down. He currently appears to be spending most of his time with Katia at the flat he rents in Hampstead, north London.

He has already moved many personal possessions— including his easels and art equipment—from his marital home in Kingston to his new flat.

A friend added: ‘Everyone has painted Kat as a wild child but she was supporting Ronnie through rehab. She is committed to helping him remain sober…

‘I know Jo was hoping he would dump Katia and return home but that is not going to happen.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The nausea-inducing line in this article: “Between courses Ekaterina affectionately cupped Wood’s face in her hands. She then lovingly spoon-fed him ice-cream.” Blech! I can’t imagine cupping that face in my hands. That whole scene must have looked like some young girl feeding her grandpa his dessert. When are these old men going to learn that sticking your wrinkled, 60-year-old penis into a 20-year old does not, by default, make you a 20-year-old again? It’s completely pathetic and a total cliche. And Jo deserves every penny.

Earlier this week, we told you the whole sordid story about Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood’s drunken tryst with a 19 year old cocktail waitress. The 61-year-old ditched his wife of 23 years to party with the teen instead of entering rehab for his two-vodka-bottle-a-day drinking habit. Now, after much urging from family and friends, the rocker has agreed to enter rehab and seek treatment.

Ronnie Wood entered a rehabilitation facility Wednesday for help with alcoholism, said a spokeswoman for the Rolling Stones guitarist.

“Following Ronnie’s continued battle with alcohol he has entered a period of rehab,” the spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity as required by her agency. “His close family and friends say he is seeking help and look forward to his recovery.”

Wood, 61, has fought a long battle with alcoholism during his rock ‘n’ roll career, which started in the 1960s when he played with the band The Faces.

His spokeswoman didn’t release any details about the treatment he will receive or the clinic that he entered.

The craggy guitarist had seemed to be in good health in recent years. He has developed a strong second career as an artist, selling his paintings at some of London’s respected art galleries.

But he has been the focus of feverish recent newspaper reports about his resuming drinking.

[From The Huffington Post]

No word on whether or not Wood ended his relationship with his young enabler, 19-year-old Ekaterina Ivanova, whom he met in a bar in Ireland. But something tells me that if he’s cleaning himself up, the party must be over. At least he’ll be sober when he appears in divorce court.

Ronnie Wood is shown out in London on 5/14/08. Credit: WENN

Ronnie Wood and his wife Jo Wood at their daughter’s wedding on 6/21/08. Credit: Daniel Deme / WENN
He’s a bit too old to chalk this one up to the oft-used excuse of “mid-life crisis.” Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, 61, has left his wife and four children to take up with a 19-year-old cocktail waitress he met in Ireland while attending a premiere party for the Rolling Stones concert film, “Shine A Light.” The rocker is so taken with the teen that he even painted nude portraits of her that are now on display in a gallery near his Irish retreat. Ron’s wife, Jo, has been with Wood for 23 years and is not taking the news very well at all. The couple were having problems prior to the 19-year-old due to Ron’s excessive drinking. Jo wanted her husband to seek treatment after he was drinking a rumored 2 vodka bottles a day. So, what does he do? Runs off with a cocktail waitress! Classic.

Wood is set to return from Ireland today with Miss Ivanova, whom he met while drinking as he celebrated the launch of the Stones film Shine a Light in April.

Her former boyfriend has accused Wood of stealing her from him after pursuing her with a series of phone calls and texts. ‘He’s very charming by all accounts. I felt a bit weird about it, but I didn’t think I had to worry about a man of 61 - even if he does have a lot of money.’

Ekaterina is rumoured to be the naked girl in Wood’s painting which is now for sale for £8,000 in a gallery near his Irish mansion.

Entitled Photography Nude 11, it is one of 60 of his paintings on show in Gallery Number One in Dublin - 20 miles from the house in County Kildare to which Wood fled with the teenager.

Gallery staff say the guitarist, who is worth an estimated £70million, has yet to visit his exhibition, preferring to go to the surrounding pubs.

They added that the nude picture had attracted a lot of interest from fans although he has not revealed the identity of the sitter. ‘He rarely does with his muses.’

Wood, who has a long and well-documented addiction to alcohol, left behind his wife Jo and their four children at their home in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He is said to be drinking two bottles of vodka a day.

Now the 61-year-old rock star’s wife is said to have ended their 23-year-old marriage over his ‘affair’ with the waitress.

Jo Wood, 53, reportedly left an angry message on his phone while he was on a 10-day bender at his Irish retreat with 18-year-old Ekaterina.

The teenager had even accompanied Wood to rehab where he was being treated for his drink problem.

Miss Ivanova is herself an amateur artist who has illustrated several children’s books and has begged the Stone to help secure her a publishing deal.

Her mother has pleaded with her to return home to London. Irina Ivanova, 48, who works as a housekeeper, moved to Britain six years ago.

She said: ‘I know they had a special sort of relationship. But I didn’t realise to what extent. I thought they only worked together. She said that Ronnie asked her to model for him. He wanted to draw her.’

She added of Wood: ‘What does he think he’s doing? He’s old enough to be her grandfather. He needs to send her back before things get out of control and either she gets hurt or his family do.’

I know that aging rockers leave their wives for younger women all the time-in fact, Ronnie isn’t the first or even the second member of The Rolling Stones to do so. But I still think it’s pretty pathetic. Do these guys think that they will somehow be able to recapture their glory days by frolicking with a girl old enough to be their granddaughter? I’ve got news for you, Ronnie: a 19-year-old’s vagina is NOT the fountain of youth. At the end of the day, you’re still a wrinkled old washed up rock star, most likely with an addiction to viagra and a lot less money to show for your trouble. It’s pretty clear this chick is using him for his money and connections, just as he’s using her to enable his booze habit and feel young again. It’s all rather creepy. And what about the woman who put up with his crap for 23 years and raised his kids? I hope she gets a nice chunk of that $70 mil.

Note by Celebitchy: Ronnie Wood and his wife Jo are shown at their daughter Leah’s wedding just a few weeks ago on 6/21/08. His daughter Leah is 29. While the Daily Mail article MSat quotes here has the cocktail waitress’ age at 18, another article in the Daily Mail lists her as 19. Maybe she just had a birthday. The Daily Mail also has photos of the other woman and she looks as young as she is.

Keith Richards is a good example for children. Kids, don’t do drugs – you might snort your father up like cocaine, or pull a gun on your bandmate, or forget how to play music. Music you wrote and played for half a century. Ronnie Wood, the young one in the Rolling Stones, has put out these claims in his autobiography. Which are probably true, unless they are his own delusional drug flashbacks.

Keith was reportedly furious with Ronnie for smoking purified cocaine in a method known as freebasing.

Ronnie recalls: “After a row with Keith one day, he stormed off to get his gun. I warned everyone to ‘clear the decks’. Keith came back with his Derringer gun, pointed it at me and yelled, ‘You f***ing b*****d Woody!’.

“But I had my own gun, a .44 Magnum. I didn’t have any bullets for it but I calmly pulled it out. And that was the last time Keith pulled a gun on me - until the next time.”

In the tome, Ronnie confesses he became so addicted to cocaine he once banned his children from eating meringues in the house after he mistook a white crumb for a chunk of the drug and attempted to smoke it.

New Zealand Herald

Say no to drugs kids.

There are rumours around again that the Rolling Stones are going to retire – but Mick Jagger doesn’t think so.

Answering questions from readers of the BBC News website, the star, who has just spent two years touring with the band, said they had no plans to retire.

“I’m sure the Rolling Stones will do more things and more records and more tours. We’ve got no plans to stop any of that really,” the 64-year-old said.

“As far as I’m concerned I’m sure we’ll continue,” he added.

BBC

The Rolling Stones made $558,255,524 on their Bigger Bang tour, despite issues facing the band. Like Keith Richards falling out of a coconut tree in Fiji and suffering a head injury. Why would you retire? Why wouldn’t you keep travelling the world, having mini-breaks in Fiji, and making gazillions? I guess Ronnie’s allegations of the Stones forgetting how the songs go can’t be too serious – they remember them well enough for their shows.

The Stones are shown in 8/20/06 performing at Twickenham in London, thanks to PRPhotos.