Who is Melanie Hamrick, mother-to-be of Sir Mick Jagger's eighth child?

Sir Mick Jagger is to be a father for the eighth time, a spokesperson for the 72-year-old Rolling Stones frontman confirmed to The Sun yesterday.

Jagger and his US ballerina girlfriend, Melanie Hamrick, 29, have been together since 2014.

While the singer lives mostly in London, she is based in New York, where she is a dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The pair are said to be "surprised and happy" by the impending addition to the family, with one source telling the Sun: "This is great news. It will be Mick’s eighth child and nothing fazes him. He's been incredibly supportive."

How did she meet Jagger?

The New York Daily News says they met in Tokyo, where the Rolling Stones were performing in February 2014. They didn't "hook up" at that time, says the paper, but got together after Jagger's then-girlfriend, L'Wren Scott, committed suicide later that year.

What else do we know about her?

Hamrick comes from Virginia and was engaged to Cuban classical dancer Jose Manuel Carreno two years ago. They were "one of the hottest couples in the dance world", says the NY Daily News, and frequently seen on the New York party circuit.

She trained at the Eastern Virginia School of the Performing Arts with Sandra Balestracci and by the age of 17, was enrolled in the American Ballet Theatre.

"I had been sheltered in this boarding school for six years, dancing morning until night, and suddenly I was in New York City dancing for ABT," she told W magazine. "I didn’t even have a debit card. I never even bought milk."

This year, she has been performing in her 11th season of Swan Lake.

Who are Jagger's other children?

The Rolling Stone is dad to Lizzy, 32, James, 30, Georgia May, 24, and Gabriel, 18, with Jerry Hall. He has Jade, 44, with former wife Bianca Jagger, and Karis, who is 45, with singer and actress Marsha Hunt. He also has a 16-year-old son, Lucas, with Brazilian model Lucia Gimenez Mora, and two grandchildren.