Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall have agreed to separate after a string of infidelities by the Rolling Stones front man.

That it should end this way will come as no surprise to avid star watchers. The glamorous couple's numerous peaks and troughs have been religiously chronicled in the popular press.

Mick Jagger has a legendary roaming eye

There have been several "false alarms", all sounded by Hall, who filed for divorce in 1996, but later pulled back from the brink.

"I don't remember anything bad for very long," she said afterwards. "I have a very selective memory and can only remember good things."

The pair first met in 1977, when Hall was taken back stage at a Rolling Stones concert by her then boyfriend, Bryan Ferry.

Ferry, then the suave lead singer of stylish British pop group Roxy Music, was no mean catch, but Jagger, a renowned womaniser, was captivated by the 20-year-old Texan model.

Hall confessed that at a dinner party later, Jagger had "pressed his knee next to mine and I could feel the electricity".

Jagger divorced his first wife Bianca in 1979, but already Hall was having to contend with his famously rolling eye.

The couple have been favourites with the tabloids

She famously claimed to practise a nugget of advice passed on by her mother: "To be a good wife you've got to be a maid in the house, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom."

Yet it was not always enough. Jagger ran scared of commitment and not long after his divorce, Hall stormed out of the relationship and into the arms of the British millionaire racehorse owner Robert Sangster.

Jagger won her back and the couple settled down to a period of relative harmony.

The tabloid press fawned over these two showbiz caricatures - Jagger, the meaty-lipped, cheeky rock 'n' roller; Hall, the photogenic leggy blonde with a sexy southern "draawl".

There was even a drugs bust - in 1987 on the island of Barbados, where Jerry was accused of carrying cannabis. She was later acquitted.

Jerry Hall has had four children by Mick Jagger

By then the couple had had two children - Elizabeth and James - and in 1990 they tied the knot in a Hindu wedding ceremony in Bali. On Friday, the couple sealed their separation when they accepted this marriage had no legal grounding in British law.

But in 1992 Jagger's womanising hit the front pages again. Twenty-four hours after Hall had given birth to their child, Georgia May, Jagger was said to have flown to see the model Carla Bruni in Thailand.

Hall proclaimed the marriage over, but was quickly reconciled.

During his time with Hall, Jagger has been linked with several other beautiful women, including actress Uma Thurman and models Nicole Kruk, Jane Rajich and Elle Macpherson

Sex therapy

In 1995 Hall allegedly hired a private detective to follow her wayward husband around London clubs.

A year later Jagger showed he was still struggling to achieve satisfaction, as he was seen back with his mistress, Bruni. But Hall's threat of divorce melted away and she became pregnant with their fourth child, Gabriel Luke Beauregard.

It was the claims last year that Brazilian model Luciana Morad was bearing Jagger's child that seem to have finally finished it for Mick and Jerry.