The Beatles biopic is officially happening, which means it's time to brush up on all there is to know about the Fab Four.
Actually, make that biopics—there are four of them: one for Paul McCartney (Paul Mescal), one for Ringo Starr (Barry Keoghan), one for George Harrison (Joseph Quinn), and one for John Lennon (Harris Dickinson). And naturally fan-casting has already started for the giant cast of characters in each of these men's lives. Specifically, their wives and girlfriends.
If you aren't up-to-date on who The Beatles were dating in the 60s due to reasons like not being born yet, let's start with a deep dive on Paul's famous relationships with the likes of Jane Asher and Linda Eastman.
Dot Rhone: 1959 to 1962
Paul and Dot met at Casbah Club in 1959 and immediately hit it off. As in, they dated for two-and-a-half years and even got engaged. But since their relationship was largely pre mega-fame, not much is known about Dot and there aren't readily available pictures of her and Paul together. In fact, Beatles biographer Bob Spitz told The Globe and Mail, "She was very reluctant at first to talk. This takes her from being a very private person to a very public person. This was a story she had kept to herself for nearly 40 years. It took a lot of time to convince her talk to me. She told me her story very hesitantly, in a halting way. In the manner she told it, I knew it was absolutely accurate."
Jane Asher: 1963 to 1968
Paul and model Jane Asher met at Royal Albert Hall—at a Beatles concert!—in 1963 shortly after the band's popularity had skyrocketed.
“She was sent by the Radio Times to cover a concert we were in at the Royal Albert Hall—we had a photo taken with her for the magazine and we all fancied her,” Paul said of their meeting. “We’d thought she was blonde, because we had only ever seen her on black-and-white telly doing Juke Box Jury, but she turned out to be a redhead. So it was: ‘Wow, you’re a redhead!’ I tried pulling her, succeeded, and we were boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a long time.”
They were super serious (Paul wrote several songs about her including "I'm Looking Through You") and even got engaged in 1967 before they broke up amid cheating rumors.
“I haven’t broken it off, but it is broken off, finished,” Jane said of the split. “I know it sounds corny, but we still see each other and love each other, but it hasn’t worked out. Perhaps we’ll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we’re about 70.”
Linda Eastman: 1967 to 1998
Linda and Paul met at a club where she was on assignment photographing musicians. He was so struck by her that he blocked her exit, invited her out, and said "that was it, we never looked back."
They married in March 1969, and Paul said "We were crazy. We had a big argument the night before we got married, and it was nearly called off. We were very up and down, quite funky compared to the eventual image of ‘25 years of married bliss! Aren't they lucky for people in showbiz?' But we are."
Paul and Linda went on to have three children, Mary, Stella, and James, and Paul adopted Linda's daughter Heather from a previous relationship. They stayed together until Linda sadly passed away in 1998.
Heather Mills: 1999 to 2008
Paul and Heather met in 1999 at a charity event, married in 2002, and had a child named Beatrice the next year. But they didn't last, and after several years of separation, got divorced in 2008. Heather said of their split, "I married Paul because I was completely in love with him. He had so much energy – he was a cross between Peter Pan and Captain Hook. I wasn’t even a Beatles fan. I barely even knew any of the songs. I liked one song by Wings but that was it. He loved that. But anyone who thinks marrying a rock legend is going to be paradise… it just isn’t."
She also went on a somewhat infamous rant about Stella McCartney, blaming her for the end of the marriage and saying “Every single week Stella tried to break up our marriage. She was so jealous. Stella wasn’t interested in her dad’s happiness. I can’t protect her any longer. She’s done evil, evil things.”
Nancy Shevell: 2007 to Now
Paul and Nancy got together in 2007 thanks to being neighbors in the Hamptons, and married in 2011. They've been living it up ever since—by which I mean Paul is out here posting her on Instagram:
