Meet Justin Trudeau’s ‘wild child’ mum Margaret Trudeau, who was rumoured to have slept with Mick Jagger: the Rolling Stone just name-dropped the famous political family on stage – so is it true?
Earlier this month, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger seemed to invite controversy when he mentioned Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s family on stage in Vancouver.
“We love you Mr Trudeau,” the ageing rocker shouted to the audience. “I mean, his family has always been such big fans of our band.”
The comments were taken by some as tongue in cheek, because they seemed to allude to a still unverified rumour that he and Margaret Trudeau – Justin’s mother – had an affair in the 70s.
Margaret is not only the “first mum” of Canada, but also a former first lady herself, having being married to former Canadian prime minister and Justin’s father Pierre Trudeau.
Dubbed the “world’s most eccentric first lady” and a “wild child” by the press, Margaret Trudeau gained both support and ridicule for her non-traditional background when she entered the political limelight. But it was her public split from Pierre in 1977 amid rumours that she had a thing with Jagger, per US media, that many still remember about her.
From the gal who initially stayed out of the spotlight, to the woman who found her voice while in it, and then made the decision to revert to a quieter life, here’s a closer look at Margaret Trudeau’s life.
How Margaret Trudeau and Pierre Trudeau met – and got married
Margaret was just 18 years old when she met a then 47-year-old Pierre while on a family holiday in Tahiti, according to Harper’s Bazaar. He was Canada’s minister of justice at the time. According to The New York Times, the pair secretly married in 1971 in Vancouver after three years of dating. Pierre reportedly told his political aides that he was out of town skiing and the couple exchanged vows in front of just 13 of their closest friends and family.
Nine months later, their first son, Justin, was born. Alexandre (Sacha), their second son, was born in 1973, and their third son, Michel, came in 1975.
After her husband became prime minister in 1968, Margaret drew attention for breaking with the tradition of how a first lady typically behaved. According to Harper’s Bazaar, she smoked marijuana in front of her security team, loved fashion and rock ‘n’ roll’ and loved to party at the infamous Studio 54.
Why the Trudeaus’ relationship eventually fell apart
While Margaret drew admiration from some quarters for being a refreshingly different first lady, her marriage was suffering. In an interview with Australia’s 60 Minutes in 1979, Margaret said she had married into a conventional system and confessed that she had been unfaithful, saying that it was a “one-night-stand” that ended their marriage. She later described her husband as “old-fashioned”, telling Harper’s Bazaar in a 2016 interview that she “devoted a lot of energy to blaming Pierre”.
After leaving Pierre, Margaret became an apprentice to famous portrait photographer Richard Avedon in New York, later telling Harper’s Bazaar it was the first time she’d had the breathing room to test out a desired profession. At the time, the couple had decided to keep their separation secret – but the news soon came out. On the night of their sixth wedding anniversary in 1977, when Margaret was discovered to have been partying with The Rolling Stones, word quickly got out that things were over between the former couple.
That Mick Jagger rumour
The story goes that, in March that year, a limousine pulled up outside El Mocambo, a popular club in Chinatown, Toronto. Inside was Mick Jagger and right behind him was Margaret. She ended up partying with them till dawn, according to the National Post. “We played dice until about five in the morning, in my hotel suite,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “Smoked some dope, talked. It was a good night, and it was my new world.”
Paparazzi images of Margaret dancing and partying with Jagger and his bandmates were published in the following days and, in Margaret’s words, “brought a huge scandal”. She denied that she had slept with Jagger and, similarly, Jagger told CBC that it was “embarrassing” that people thought they had hooked up, saying the story had been “blown up”.
Two months later, in May 1977, Pierre confirmed their separation, but they were only formally divorced in 1984.
Who did Margaret Trudeau date?
But the tabloids’ fascination with Margaret didn’t end there. The media gleefully reported on her subsequent dates with actor Ryan O’Neal, singer Lou Rawls, and Jack Nicholson, and the fact that she “frequently chaperoned Truman Capote to bed”, according to Harper’s Bazaar. It was at this point that Margaret decided to live a more low-key life, according to the publication.
Her bipolar diagnosis
In 2000, Pierre died of prostate cancer. Margaret was at his side, with the two having made up, per The Globe & Mail. Just two years prior, the couple’s son Michel had tragically died in an avalanche in British Columbia at the age of 23. The two deaths took their toll on Margaret, and after Pierre died she was hospitalised and subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
She later told The Sydney Morning Herald that she was drinking and smoking marijuana, and had cut herself off from everyone. Per Harper’s Bazaar, Margaret admitted she previously suffered from post-partum depression and, although she agreed to get medical help, bipolar disorder was not readily recognised as a mental illness in the 1970s. She has since become an advocate of mental health and speaks at events to help raise awareness.
