Jo Wood is an English model, entrepreneur and television personality best known as the former wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and as the founder of the organic beauty brand Jo Wood Organics. She built her own public profile long before and long after her marriage, starting as a teenage model and later becoming a recognised advocate for organic living, a published author, and a regular face on British television.
Readers search for Jo Wood mainly because of her three-decade marriage to a member of one of the world’s most famous rock bands, and because she later reinvented herself as a businesswoman and author in her own right. This article covers her early life, modelling career, marriage and family, her organic beauty business, her television and writing work, and her current activities. Some details of her private life, particularly relating to her children and grandchildren, are only briefly confirmed in public sources and are treated accordingly.
Quick Bio
| Field | Details |
| Full name | Josephine Wood (née Karslake) |
| Profession | Model, entrepreneur, television personality, author |
| Nationality | English (British) |
| Date of birth | 15 March 1955 |
| Birthplace | Essex, England |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Known for | Former wife of Ronnie Wood; founder of Jo Wood Organics |
| Major works | Hey Jo (2013), Stoned (2019), The Resurrection of Flo (2025) |
| Spouses | Peter Greene (m. 1973; div. 1976); Ronnie Wood (m. 1985; div. 2009) |
| Official website | jowoodorganics.com |
Who Is Jo Wood?
Jo Wood is known first for her decades-long association with the Rolling Stones, having been married to guitarist Ronnie Wood from 1985 until 2009. During that time she travelled the world with the band, managing tour logistics and Ronnie’s diet, and became a visible figure in the rock-and-roll world of the 1980s and 1990s.
But her public identity extends well beyond that marriage. She built a modelling career in her teens, later launched an organic beauty company, wrote three books about her life and interests, and became a familiar face on British reality and lifestyle television. Her post-divorce reinvention as a businesswoman and media personality is a key reason she remains searched for today.
Early Life and Family Background
Jo Wood was born Josephine Karslake on 15 March 1955 in Essex, England. Her father, Michael Karslake, worked as an architectural model maker, and her mother, Rachel (née Lundell), who was South African by birth, worked as an Avon representative and doll maker. Wood has said her mother’s work selling Avon products sparked her early interest in fashion and beauty.
She is the eldest of four children, with a sister, Lize, and two brothers, Vinnie and Paul Karslake. According to an interview with the Independent, the family lived in a council house in Basildon, Essex, until she was nine, before moving to an old vicarage that her father renovated. She grew up in Benfleet, Essex, and left school at 16 to begin modelling.
Education
Public sources do not detail Wood’s formal schooling beyond confirming she left school at 16 to pursue modelling. No university or further education has been documented in reliable reporting.
Career Beginnings
Wood entered the modelling industry immediately after leaving school at 16, achieving early recognition when she was named The Sun newspaper’s “Face of 1972”. She modelled steadily through her late teens and early twenties, working until age 22.
Her first marriage came early: in 1973, aged 18, she eloped to Las Vegas with Peter Greene. The couple had a son, Jamie, born in September 1974, and divorced in 1976. Jamie was later adopted by Ronnie Wood after Jo’s second marriage.
Career Breakthrough
Wood met Ronnie Wood in 1977 at a party, several years before the Rolling Stones guitarist proposed. The couple were together for roughly seven years before marrying on 2 January 1985. During this period, Wood worked as Ronnie’s personal assistant and styled him for stage performances and photo shoots, positioning her inside the machinery of one of rock’s biggest touring acts rather than simply alongside it.
This role, travelling globally with the Rolling Stones and managing elements of Ronnie’s professional life, gave Wood a level of public visibility that few models of her generation achieved, and it laid the foundation for the media profile she would later use in business and television.
Complete Career Overview
Business Career
A serious health scare in 1989 led Wood to adopt a strictly organic lifestyle, starting with her diet and eventually extending to skincare and beauty products. Unable to find organic beauty products that performed well on skin, she developed her own range. Jo Wood Organics launched at Harvey Nichols in 2006 (some sources cite 2005 as the founding year) and later expanded into the United States and Canada.
The brand paused in 2009 during her divorce from Ronnie Wood, but has since been relaunched with fragrance and body-care products, including two scents named Amka and Usiku, sold as eau de toilette, body oil and candles. In 2009 she also launched a pop-up restaurant, Mrs Paisley’s Lashings, with chef Arthur Potts Dawson, aimed at promoting sustainable dining.
Television Career
Wood has been a recurring presence on British television. She competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2009, partnered with professional dancer Brendan Cole, before being eliminated in week six after a samba scored 14 out of 40. She later appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in July 2013, where she was the second contestant eliminated, and has featured on Celebrity First Dates, The Island, Heston’s Feast, Mary Queen of Shops, Britain’s Got More Talent and Market Kitchen.
She also hosts the Alien Nation Podcast, in which she discusses UFO encounters and extraterrestrial life with celebrity guests and members of the public, a long-standing personal interest that dates back to sighting unexplained lights in Brazil in 1998.
Writing and Creative Work
Wood has published three books. Hey Jo: A Rock and Roll Fairytale (also released internationally as It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll: Thirty Years Married to a Rolling Stone) appeared in February 2013 and recounts her three decades with Ronnie Wood, from touring life to the breakdown of the marriage. In November 2019 she released Stoned: Photographs & Treasures from Life with the Rolling Stones, a visual memoir built around candid photographs she took while travelling with the band. In 2025, Wood published her debut novel, The Resurrection of Flo. She has also written a health-focused title, How to Look and Feel Healthy, Energetic and Radiant the Organic Way, and contributed columns to Fabulous and Natural Health magazines.
Major Works and Achievements
Wood’s most significant professional achievements are commercial and creative rather than awards-based. Launching Jo Wood Organics gave her an independent business identity distinct from her marriage, and its relaunch years later shows continued commercial activity in the natural beauty sector. Her three published books each found an audience specifically because of her insider account of Rolling Stones touring life, and Stoned was notable for using her own previously unpublished photography rather than relying solely on text. Her charity work, including trips with the People Tree Foundation to support ethical fashion production in Bangladesh, and her association with Sadhguru’s Project GreenHands tree-planting initiative in India, reflect a sustained personal commitment to environmental and ethical causes rather than one-off publicity appearances.
Personal Life
Wood married Peter Greene in 1973 and Ronnie Wood in 1985; both marriages ended in divorce, in 1976 and 2009 respectively. She and Ronnie Wood have two children together, Leah (born 1978) and Tyrone (born 1983), in addition to her son Jamie from her first marriage, whom Ronnie later adopted. Wood also has ten grandchildren across her children’s families. She has lived in Los Angeles and New York during her marriage and is now settled in London.
Relationship With a Famous Person
Wood is widely searched for because of her marriage to Ronnie Wood, guitarist of the Rolling Stones since 1975. The couple met in 1977, married in January 1985, and divorced in 2009 after Ronnie left the marriage; press reports at the time linked the split to his relationship with a much younger woman. Despite the divorce, multiple interviews describe the two as having remained on cordial terms in the years since. It is important to note that Wood’s own career, spanning modelling, business and media work, developed independently of this marriage and continued to grow well after the divorce.
Business Ventures and Companies
Wood is the founder of Jo Wood Organics, an organic fragrance and body-care brand she personally developed and launched, rather than a venture she simply promoted. She was also a co-founder, alongside chef Arthur Potts Dawson, of the pop-up sustainable dining concept Mrs Paisley’s Lashings in 2009. Earlier in her career, while living in New York, she designed clothing for the fashion label No Scruples.
Social-Media Presence
Wood maintains a public profile connected to her business through the official Jo Wood Organics website and associated social channels, where she shares product updates and lifestyle content related to organic living. She also promotes her Alien Nation Podcast through public channels, engaging listeners on topics of UFOs and unexplained phenomena. Specific follower numbers are not verified here, as they change frequently.
Public Image and Influence
Within the wellness and organic beauty space, Wood is recognised as an early adopter who built a genuine business around a personal health experience rather than simply lending her name to an existing product line. Her decision to overhaul her diet and lifestyle after a 1989 health scare, and to later commercialise that knowledge through Jo Wood Organics, predates much of the mainstream “clean beauty” movement that followed in the 2010s. Her television appearances and books have also kept her visible to a broader audience beyond the beauty industry, particularly among viewers interested in rock history from a family perspective rather than a musician’s own account.
Recent Work and Current Status
As of 2025, Wood published her debut novel, The Resurrection of Flo, marking a new creative direction beyond memoir and lifestyle writing. Jo Wood Organics continues to trade, currently offering the Amka and Usiku fragrance ranges in eau de toilette, body oil and candle formats through its official website. She continues to host the Alien Nation Podcast and has featured in recent interviews discussing her life after divorce and her outlook on independence and reinvention.
Growing Influence
Wood’s career shows a pattern of continued reinvention rather than reliance on past fame: from teenage model, to touring partner and stylist, to organic entrepreneur, television contestant, author, and now novelist and podcast host. This adaptability across several decades and industries is arguably a more accurate measure of her professional identity than any single project.
Common Misconceptions
Because reports of her marriage and divorce vary slightly in date, it is worth clarifying that Wood married Ronnie Wood on 2 January 1985 and their divorce was finalised in 2009, according to Wikipedia’s sourced record, though some magazine profiles have referenced 2011 as a later legal finalisation date. Readers should also not assume Wood’s beauty brand was launched purely as a celebrity endorsement; company and interview sources confirm she personally developed the product range in response to her own health needs, rather than licensing her name to an existing formula.
Conclusion
Jo Wood’s public story begins with modelling success as a teenager and a marriage that placed her at the centre of Rolling Stones touring life for over two decades. Her most defining professional achievement outside that marriage is Jo Wood Organics, the organic beauty brand she founded from personal necessity and has continued to develop over nearly two decades.
Beyond business, her books, television appearances and podcast reflect a media career built independently of her former husband’s fame. Details of her broader family life, including her grandchildren, are only briefly documented in public sources, and this article has avoided speculation beyond what has been confirmed.
FAQ
Who is Jo Wood?
Jo Wood is an English model, entrepreneur and television personality, best known as the former wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and as founder of the organic beauty brand Jo Wood Organics.
What is Jo Wood known for?
She is best known for her 24-year marriage to Ronnie Wood, her organic beauty company Jo Wood Organics, and television appearances on shows including Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity MasterChef.
Where is Jo Wood from?
Jo Wood was born in Essex, England, on 15 March 1955, and grew up partly in Basildon and Benfleet before beginning her modelling career at 16.
Is Jo Wood married?
No. Wood was previously married to Peter Greene (1973–1976) and Ronnie Wood (1985–2009). Both marriages ended in divorce, and there is no public record of a subsequent marriage.
Does Jo Wood have children?
Yes. Wood has a son, Jamie, from her first marriage, and two children, Leah and Tyrone, with Ronnie Wood. Public sources also confirm she has ten grandchildren.
What is Jo Wood doing now?
Wood continues to run Jo Wood Organics, hosts the Alien Nation Podcast, and in 2025 published her debut novel, The Resurrection of Flo, alongside continued media interviews about her life and career.
