Paul McCartney Admitted He Was a ‘Total Bastard’ for Not Inviting The Beatles to His Wedding
Paul McCartney was the final Beatle to get married when he tied the knot in 1969. While one might expect to see pictures of the McCartneys celebrating with The Beatles and their wives, these images don’t exist. The other Beatles did not attend McCartney’s wedding. When reflecting on this, McCartney said he couldn’t remember if he’d invited them. Still, he understood why they didn’t attend.
Paul McCartney said Beatles relations were at an all-time low when he got married
In 1969, John Lennon announced he wanted to leave The Beatles, and McCartney got married. The band had been engaged in an icy battle over business affairs and their music, so group morale was not high. While McCartney enjoyed his wedding, he did so without the company of his longtime bandmates.
“I really don’t remember whether or not I invited any of the band to the wedding,” McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology. “Why not? I’m a total bastard, I suppose — I don’t know, really.”
He could see why he wouldn’t have invited them or why they wouldn’t have wanted to attend, though.
“Maybe it was because the group was breaking up,” he said. “We were all pissed off with each other. We certainly weren’t a gang anymore. That was the thing. Once a group’s broken up like that, that’s it.”
Still, at least some people connected with The Beatles came to celebrate the couple.
“I didn’t go to Paul and Linda’s wedding, but they had lunch or tea afterwards at the Ritz, and I think it was just Paul, Linda, Mal [Evans], Suzy (my wife) and me,” road manager Neil Aspinall said. “I don’t remember anybody else being there.”
One Beatle admitted he was surprised Paul McCartney didn’t marry a former girlfriend
At this point, The Beatles had drifted so far apart that they didn’t even know why McCartney was no longer dating his longtime girlfriend, Jane Asher. When Asher heard McCartney had been involved with another woman, she announced the end of their relationship on live television. Despite the public and messy end to the relationship, it seemed that McCartney’s bandmates hadn’t asked him about it.
“I think we expected Paul and Jane Asher to get married,” Ringo Starr said. “They were lovers, they were together, and it seemed a natural thing to do. I don’t know in the end what actually broke them up. We’ll have to ask him, or ask her — that’s probably more interesting!”
George Harrison was arrested on Paul McCartney’s wedding day
While George Harrison was not McCartney’s biggest fan at that point in time, he at least had a valid excuse for not attending the wedding. Police raided his home on McCartney’s wedding day and arrested him for drug possession.
“They chose Paul’s wedding day to come and do a raid on me, and to this day I’m still having difficulty with my visa to America because of this fella,” Harrison said, adding, “They took us off, fingerprinted us and we were busted. It was written in the papers like a fashion show: ‘George was wearing a yellow suit and his wife Pattie had on…'”
Even if Harrison had wanted to attend the wedding, he wouldn’t have been able to.
