Jo Wood says her break-up from Ronnie was the ''best thing'' for her.

The ex-wife of the Rolling Stones rocker recalled him telling her it was over because he wanted to pursue a romance with then-19-year-old Katia Ivanova - but he offered to try to repair their marriage if it failed.

She revealed: ''I said, 'I don't think so.' I got up, drove off and that was it - and on reflection it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I'd always had the protection of the Stones around me. I'd never been independent, so initially I was numb.

''Then, after a few months of moping around, my eldest son Tyson said, 'Mum, you've got to get yourselves together'.

''Soon I started to grow as a person and by the time the divorce came through in November 2009 I felt independent again for the first time since my early twenties.''

The 57-year-old star bears no ill will to her ex-husband and is delighted he's ''stopped drinking'' and found happiness with third wife Sally Humphreys, who he married in December last year.

She told the Daily Mail newspaper: ''I can survive without him. And I'm happy for Ronnie too. I still think he's a genius guitar player and he should be proud he's finally stopped drinking and I'm happy he's found somebody else too. I just hope he doesn't go back to what he was like.''