Personal relationships of Paul McCartney
The relationships of the English musician Paul McCartney include engagements to Dot Rhone and actress Jane Asher, and marriages to Linda Eastman, Heather Mills, and Nancy Shevell.
McCartney had a three-year relationship with Dot Rhone in Liverpool, and bought her a gold ring in Hamburg after she became pregnant in 1960 and they were to be married. However, she miscarried and they did not marry, but stayed together until the autumn of 1962. In London, McCartney had a five-year relationship with Jane Asher after they met in April 1963 and lived in her parents’ house for three years. He wrote several songs at the Ashers’ house, including “Yesterday”. Asher inspired other songs, such as “And I Love Her”, “You Won’t See Me”, and “I’m Looking Through You”. On 25 December 1967, they announced their engagement, but they separated in July 1968.
McCartney met the American photographer Linda Eastman in The Bag O’Nails club in London on 15 May 1967, while still with Asher. They met again at the launch party for the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on 19 May 1967. In May 1968, McCartney met Eastman again in New York, and they were married on 12 March 1969. They had three children together and remained married until her death from breast cancer in 1998.
McCartney appeared publicly beside Heather Mills at a party in January 2000 to celebrate her 32nd birthday. On 11 June 2002, they were married at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, Ireland. They had one child, Beatrice, in 2003 but were living apart by May 2006. In July 2006, British newspapers announced that McCartney had petitioned for divorce. On 17 March 2008, the financial terms of the divorce were finalised, which awarded Mills £24.3 million ($38.5 million). In November 2007, McCartney started dating Nancy Shevell, who was a member of the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and vice president of the family-owned New England Motor Freight. It was announced on 6 May 2011, that the two had become engaged, and they married in London on 9 October 2011.
Jim McCartney encouraged his son Paul to play the family piano on which the boy wrote “When I’m Sixty-Four”.[1] Jim advised Paul to take some music lessons, which he did, but soon realised that he preferred to learn ‘by ear’ (as his father had done) and because he never paid attention in music classes.[1] After Paul and brother Michael (stage name Mike McGear) became interested in music, Jim connected the radio in the living room to extension cords connected to two pairs of Bakelite headphones so that they could listen to Radio Luxembourg at night when they were in bed.[2]
After first meeting John Lennon, Jim warned Paul that John would get him “into trouble”, although he later allowed The Quarrymen to rehearse in the dining room at Forthlin Road in the evenings.[3] Jim was reluctant to let the teenage Paul go to Hamburg with the Beatles until Paul said the group would earn £15 per week each (equivalent to £400 in 2023[4]). As this was more than he earned himself, Jim finally agreed, but only after a visit from the group’s then-manager, Allan Williams, who said that Jim should not worry.[5][6] Bill Harry recalled that Jim was probably “the Beatles’ biggest fan”, and was extremely proud of Paul’s success. Shelagh Johnson—later to become director of the Beatles’ Museum in Liverpool—said that Jim’s outward show of pride embarrassed his son.[7] Jim enlisted Michael’s help when sorting through the ever-increasing sacks of fan letters that were delivered to Forthlin Road, with both composing “personal” responses that were supposedly from Paul.[8] Michael later succeeded on his own with the group the Scaffold.[9]
