Mick Jagger's sad farewell to L'Wren Scott

L'Wren Scott. Photo / AP

A gaunt Mick Jagger paid a poignant farewell at a memorial service to his late girlfriend L'Wren Scott with a song that hinted at her inner demons.

The Rolling Stones singer performed the Bob Dylan classic Just Like A Woman in front of a church in New York packed with stars of fashion, music and acting.

Friends and family gathered at Manhattan's St Bart's Church on Friday for Ms Scott, 49, who died in her Manhattan apartment in March.

The strain of his loss was clearly etched on 70-year-old Jagger's face. He appeared frail and emotional as he sang the lyrics: "She takes just like a woman. She makes love just like a woman. And she aches just like a woman. But she breaks just like a little girl."

Celebrities present included fellow Rolling Stone Keith Richards, actresses Julianne Moore, Meg Ryan and Renee Zellweger, and film directors Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann.

Actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Ellen Barkin delivered tributes to their close friend during the service, which also featured the reading of a poem by her niece, Hannah Bambrough, and by James Jagger, one of Mick's four children by model Jerry Hall. Psalm 23 was read aloud by Jagger's grandchildren, Mazie and Zak.

Andre Leon Talley, a former editor-at-large at Vogue magazine, said afterwards: "Everyone spoke that loved her. Everyone had their own beautiful memories of L'Wren.

"The mood was beautiful, solemn, elegant. The mood was L'Wren. She would have approved of everything, the flowers, every single thing. It was brilliant."

Jagger, who also paid tribute to Scott at her funeral in Los Angeles in March, found out about her death while on tour with the Stones in Australia.

At the time he said: "We spent many happy years together and had made great lives for ourselves. I am still struggling to understand how my lover and best friend could end her life in this tragic way."

- Mail On Sunday