Francie Schwartz

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 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 December 25, 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 May 15, 1967, while still with Asher. They met again at the launch party for the Beatles' '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' on May 19, 1967. In May 1968, McCartney met Eastman again in New York, and they were married on March 12, 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 June 11, 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 March 17, 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 is vice president of the family-owned New England Motor Freight. It was announced on May 6, 2011, that the two had become engaged, and they married in London on October 9, 2011.

Jim and Mary McCartney

With encouragement from his father, Jim, Paul started playing the family piano and wrote "When I'm Sixty-Four" on it. 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. 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.

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. 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 (). 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. 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. 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. Michael later succeeded on his own with the group the Scaffold.

Songs

Paul wrote "I Lost My Little Girl" just after Mary had died, and explained that it was a subconscious reference to his late mother.Miles (1997) p. 21 He has speculated that he subconciously wrote the song " Yesterday" about his mother as well. He also wrote "Golden Slumbers" at his father's house in Heswall, and said the lyrics were taken from Ruth McCartney's sheet-music copy of Thomas Dekker's lullaby—also called "Golden Slumbers"—that Ruth had left on the piano at Rembrandt."The Beatles Anthology" DVD 2003 (Special Features—Back at Abbey Road May 1995— 0:00:16) McCartney talking about the writing of "Golden Slumbers". Hunter Davies, who was at Jim's house at the time doing an interview for his Beatles' biography, remembered Jim listening to an acetate disc of "When I'm Sixty-Four". Davies wrote that Paul recorded the song specifically for his father, as Jim was then 64 years old and had married Angela two years previously. Paul wrote " Let It Be", because of a dream he had in 1968. He said that he had dreamt of his mother, and the "Mother Mary" lyric was about her.Sir Paul McCartney – Singer/Songwriter – 19 January 2007
bbc.co.uk – Retrieved 11 October 2007 He later said, "It was great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing 'Let It Be'."

In 1974, Paul recorded a song his father had previously written, entitled "Walking in the Park with Eloise", which was released by Wings under the pseudonym, "The Country Hams". The Country Hams' single was backed with a tune entitled "Bridge on the River Suite". Both songs can be found on the CD '' Venus and Mars'' from The Paul McCartney Collection.

Early relationships

One of McCartney's first girlfriends, in 1957, was called Layla, a name he remembered as being unusual in Liverpool at the time. She was slightly older than McCartney and used to ask him to baby-sit with her. Julie Arthur, another girlfriend, was Ted Ray's niece.

McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was seventeen-year-old Dorothy "Dot" Rhone (a bank clerk or a cashier at a chemist's, according to varying accounts), whom he had met at The Casbah Club in 1959. McCartney picked out the clothes he liked Rhone to wear and told her which make-up to use, also paying for her to have her blonde hair done in the style of Brigitte Bardot, whom both he and John Lennon idolised. He disliked Rhone seeing her friends, and stopped her from smoking, even though he did so himself. When McCartney first went to Hamburg with The Beatles, he wrote regular letters to Rhone, and she accompanied Lennon's girlfriend, Cynthia Powell, to Hamburg when the group played there again in 1962. According to Rhone, McCartney bought her a gold ring in Hamburg, a leather skirt, took her sightseeing, and was very attentive and caring. For the time Rhone was there, the couple lived in a bungalow by the Hamburg docks that belonged to Rosa, a former cleaner at the Indra club. McCartney admitted that he had other girlfriends in Hamburg when Rhone was in Liverpool, admitting that they were usually strippers, who knew a lot more about sex than Liverpool girls.''The Beatles Anthology'' DVD 2003 (Episode 1: 43:51) McCartney talking about sex and strippers in Hamburg.

Rhone later rented a room in the same house as Cynthia Lennon was living, with McCartney contributing to the rent. According to Mark Lewisohn’s biography ''Tune In'', Dot became pregnant in 1960, and Paul’s father, Jim, while being shocked, was nonetheless rather pleased at the prospect of becoming a grandfather. They were to be married soon, but Dot had a miscarriage. She still wore the ring he gave her, and they stayed together until the autumn of 1962 when Paul broke up with her, knowing she’d eventually want to get married (John & Cynthia had recently married in August 1962 due to her pregnancy), and he didn’t want to marry anyone at the time because was still only 20 years old.

He then had a brief relationship with Thelma Pickles, who had previously dated Lennon. She later married Liverpool poet Roger McGough, but she remembered McCartney as growing from a "plump young schoolboy into someone very much his own person" during their time together. McCartney also had a fiery on–off relationship with Iris Caldwell, the younger sister of singer Rory Storm, who refused to bow to McCartney's demands. After one argument, Caldwell poured a bowl of sugar over his head, but when McCartney turned up the next day, she had to phone her new boyfriend, George Harrison, to cancel their date.

Rhone later emigrated to Toronto, Canada, and McCartney met her again when the Beatles played there, and then again with Wings. Rhone later said that "Love of the Loved" and " P.S. I Love You" were written about her. Years later, Cynthia Lennon gave Rhone the gold ring that McCartney had bought Rhone, having once tried it on while Rhone was washing dishes, and forgotten to take it off. Rhone is now a grandmother and lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

Asher and Eastman

McCartney first met British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963 when the Beatles performed at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, after a photographer asked them to pose with her. They were then interviewed by Asher for the BBC
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