Paparazzi Ambushed Paul McCartney and Former Girlfriend Jane Asher at a London Theater
Paparazzi ambushed Paul McCartney and his then-girlfriend Jane Asher at a London theater in 1963, shortly after Beatlemania had begun in the U.K. Photographers and their respective newspapers were desperate for snapshots of the new couple.
Paul McCartney and Jane Asher met in 1963
In 1963, both The Beatles and Asher were new to fame. The Beatles had recently released their single “Please Please Me,” and a 17-year-old Asher had a few acting credits and was a panelist on the BBC’s Juke Box Jury. Asher met The Beatles at the Royal Albert Hall and interviewed them for the Radio Times.
According to Express, Paul later said he and the group all fancied the actor, but he eventually started dating her. In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein arranged for them to live in London. Shortly after, Asher and her family invited Paul to live with them in their home in Marylebone after hearing Paul’s apartment “had no soul.”
“This gesture was in the long tradition of giving a garret room to a starving artist,” he wrote. “So, I had a little room up at the top, next to Jane’s brother Peter’s room.”
Paul loved living at the Ashers’. He said it was a real eye-opening experience because he’d never been around classy people. He wrote, “The family knew all about art and culture and society, whereas I’d never known anyone who knew about going for auditions, or had an agent.
“It was really nice staying in that house. Lots of books to read, art on the walls, interesting conversations; and Margaret was a music teacher. It was at least a home, and I’d sorely missed that since I’d come down from Liverpool and since my mum had died six or seven years before.”
Paparazzi ambushed Paul and Asher at a London theater
Paul wrote, “as far as the gossip columns were concerned, Jane and I were what they would call an ‘item.'” Soon paparazzi were following their every move wanting photographs. However, Paul revealed they went a little overboard one night when he and Asher were out at the theater.
“We were in a theatre one night – I liked literature and theatre, and of course she, as an actress, did too, which might have explained a good deal why I was drawn to her in the first place – and we were sitting there, and the lights went up for the interval,” Paul explained.
“We had decided not to go to the bar, so we were just going to sit it out. Despite some of those huge early concerts, I really was not used to the personal burdens imposed by fame, so we were just talking in our seats, and suddenly 10 paparazzi came scampering in with those cameras going flash, flash, flash, like La Dolce Vita, and then, just as quickly, they all just scampered out again.
“They were like the Keystone Cops. But, oh my God, we were shocked. The theatre had probably tipped them off, to get a bit of publicity for the play.”
Asher wasn’t the only Beatle girlfriend who experienced the worst of Beatlemania. Fans assaulted George Harrison’s girlfriend and later wife, Pattie Boyd, when she tried leaving one of their performances early.
Asher inspired many Beatles songs but broke up with the bassist on live television
Soon after being ambushed by the paparazzi, Paul wanted to tell Asher he loved her, which inspired “And I Love Her.” He wrote it in his room at her home.
Asher inspired many Beatles songs from then on, including “Every Little Thing.” Eventually, their relationship troubles crept up in Paul’s writing too, including in songs like “Another Girl,” “We Can Work It Out,” “You Won’t See Me,” “I’m Looking Through You,” and “For No One.”
Eventually, Paul and Asher realized they wanted different things and paths. After briefly being engaged, Paul started dating other women while Asher was away working. After finding out, Asher broke up with Paul on live television. On Dee Time, she said, “I haven’t broken it off, but it’s finished.”
She called off the engagement in 1968. That year, Paul met and started dating his first wife, Linda Eastman. However, Paul and Asher remained friends. Years later, Paul walked past the Ashers’ home on Wimpole Street, heading to his doctor’s down the road. It brought back his fondest memories of living there.
Before entering the building, Paul sensed someone behind him. It was Asher. Paul wrote, “I said, ‘Oh my God, I was just thinking about you and the house.’ That was the last time I saw her, but the memories don’t fade.” Neither do the songs Paul wrote for his first love.
