Getty spent most of his childhood in Rome, Italy, while his father headed the Italian division of the Getty family's oil Business. His parents divorced in 1964 when he was eight years old, and his father remarried in 1966 to model and Actress Talitha Pol. The family adopted a hippie lifestyle, spending much time in Britain and Morocco during the 1960s. Getty remained in Rome living with his mother Gail and attended St. George's British International School. In early 1972, he was expelled from St. George's after painting offensive six-feet-high wording aimed at the school's headmaster in a hallway of the school. Later that year, his stepmother died of a heroin overdose in Rome. While his father moved back to the United Kingdom, Paul remained in Italy where he lived a bohemian lifestyle, frequenting nightclubs and taking part in left-wing demonstrations. Endowed with considerable artistic talent, he reportedly earned a living making jewelry, selling paintings, and appearing as an extra in movies. The Italian magazine "Playmen" paid Getty $1,000 to appear in a naked spread and on the cover of its August 1973 issue, released a month after he was kidnapped.