Marianne: The Stone I really loved

Her five-year romance with Mick Jagger made her an icon of the Sixties.

But now Marianne Faithfull has revealed that she actually preferred Keith Richards.

The singer, whose convent education belied a wild side that later led to drug addiction, says she regrets that her relationship with Jagger's guitarist was limited to a onenight stand.

And she claims she only started dating Jagger because Richards told her to.

'My night with Keith was wonderful but it was just one night so it's completely idealised,' she told an American magazine.

'We have nothing to worry about, when we see each other we're just delighted.

'I don't see all the stuff other people see. To me, he's still the same. Honestly, I see that beautiful 24-year-old man. And that's what I will always see.

'It was Keith's idea that I go with Mick. He thought it would be good for the band. And instead of saying, "But I love you", I said, "OK".

'I didn't really love Mick when

I was first with him, I was just obeying Keith.'

Miss Faithfull found fame when she was discovered by the Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Jagger and Richards wrote her first song, As Tears Go By.

At the time of her liaisons with the Stones - she has previously alleged that she also had a one-night stand with their late guitarist Brian Jones - she was married to art gallery owner John Dunbar.

It was her romance with Jagger which made her the envy of rock chicks everywhere, particularly when police raided a drug-fuelled party in 1968 at Richards's country house, Redlands, at West Wittering in West Sussex, and she was arrested wearing only a fur rug.

Jagger gallantly claimed that drugs belonging to her were actually his and was sentenced to three months for it.

Their five-year relationship hit the rocks when she miscarried Jagger's baby and he had a romantic interlude with Anita Pallenberg, who had already dated Richards and Jones.

Following their break-up, Miss Faithfull battled heroin addiction and spent two years homeless on the streets of Soho.

Now a grandmother of two, Miss Faithfull, who is 58 on Saturday, has recently enjoyed something of a resurgence, admired by the likes of Kate Moss and Courtney Love.

Earlier this month, she was forced to pull out of a European tour after collapsing with exhaustion.

n.lampert@dailymail.co.uk