Relationships
McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was Dorothy "Dot" Rhone, whom he met at the Casbah club in 1959. The couple had a two-and-a-half-year relationship, and were due to marry until Rhone's miscarriage, after which McCartney ended the engagement. McCartney began dating British actress Jane Asher in 1963. The two resided at Asher's parents' home in Marylebone, central London, for more than two years before moving to McCartney's own home in St John's Wood in March 1966. He wrote several songs while living with the Ashers, including "Yesterday", "And I Love Her", "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You", the latter three having been inspired by their romance. They had a five-year relationship and planned to marry, but Asher broke off the engagement after she discovered that McCartney had become involved with an American screenwriter named Francie Schwartz.
McCartney's first wife was Linda Eastman, whom he married in March 1969. She had first met the Beatles in 1966 as a photographer. She commented, "It was John who interested me at the start. He was my Beatle hero. But when I met him the fascination faded fast, and I found it was Paul I liked." The pair first became properly acquainted in May 1967 at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails club, during her UK assignment to photograph rock musicians in London. About their relationship, Paul said, "We had a lot of fun together ... just the nature of how we aren't, our favourite thing really is to just hang, to have fun. And Linda's very big on just following the moment." After the break-up of the Beatles, the McCartneys collaborated musically and formed Wings in 1971. They faced derision from some fans and critics, who questioned her inclusion. He went on to say, "We thought we were in it for the fun ... it was just something we wanted to do, so if we got it wrong—big deal. We didn't have to justify ourselves."
Paul and Linda had four children—Linda's daughter Heather (legally adopted by Paul), Mary, Stella, and James—and remained married until Linda's death from breast cancer at age 56 in 1998. After Linda died, Paul said, "I got a counsellor because I knew that I would need some help. He was great, particularly in helping me get rid of my guilt [about wishing I'd been] perfect all the time ... a real bugger. But then I thought, hang on a minute. We're just human. That was the beautiful thing about our marriage. We were just a boyfriend and girlfriend having babies."
In 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmine campaigner. In 2003, the couple had a child, Beatrice Milly, named in honour of Mills's late mother and one of McCartney's aunts. They separated in April 2006 and divorced acrimoniously in May 2008. In 2004, he commented on media animosity toward his partners: "[the British public] didn't like me giving up on Jane Asher ... I married [Linda], a New York divorcee with a child, and at the time they didn't like that".
McCartney married New Yorker Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony at Marylebone Town Hall, London, on 9 October 2011. The wedding was a modest event attended by a group of about 30 relatives and friends. The couple had been together since November 2007. Shevell is vice-president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate which owns New England Motor Freight. She is a former member of the board of the New York area's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Shevell is about 18 years younger than McCartney. They had known each other for about 20 years prior to marrying, having met because both had homes in the Hamptons.
Following the Beatles' break-up, McCartney initially had a strained relationship with Lennon, although they briefly became close again in early 1974, and played music together on one occasion. In later years, the two grew apart. McCartney often phoned Lennon, but was apprehensive about the reception he would receive. McCartney's last telephone call to Lennon, days before Lennon and Ono released Double Fantasy, was friendly: "[It is] a consoling factor for me, because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out. But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn't have any kind of blow-up", he said.
On 9 December 1980, McCartney followed the news that Lennon had been murdered the previous night; Lennon's death created a media frenzy around the surviving members of the band. McCartney was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio that evening when he was surrounded by reporters who asked him for his reaction; he responded: "It's a drag". The press quickly criticised him for what appeared to be a superficial response. In 2025 Sean Ono Lennon said: “I always notice the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice. Really felt like someone who was unable to process what was going on. He just seemed almost robotic, which I think some people took possibly as coldness, but I never took it as that, ’cause I understood even then what it was like when something that terrible happens". In 1983, McCartney said: "I would not have been as typically human and standoffish as I was if I knew John was going to die. I would have made more of an effort to try and get behind his 'mask' and have a better relationship with him." He told Mojo in 2002 that Lennon was his greatest hero. McCartney sang backing vocals on Harrison's 1981 tribute to Lennon, "All Those Years Ago", which featured Starr on drums. He also released his own tribute to Lennon, "Here Today", in 1982.
In 2010, Yoko Ono referred to John and Paul as brothers. "Sure, they were two macho, very talented guys who had strong opinions, arguments, like most brothers. But when it came to the crux of the matter, when Paul thought John was in dire straights, he helped".
Discussing his relationship with McCartney, Harrison said: "Paul would always help along when you'd done his ten songs—then when he got 'round to doing one of my songs, he would help. It was silly. It was very selfish, actually ... There were a lot of tracks, though, where I played bass ... because what Paul would do—if he'd written a song, he'd learn all the parts for Paul and then come in the studio and say (sometimes he was very difficult): 'Do this'. He'd never give you the opportunity to come out with something." In 1988, Harrison said: "Actually, I love Paul, he's my mate, and it doesn't matter what they say in the papers, they're not gonna get much mileage out of that one." After Harrison's death in November 2001, McCartney said he was "a lovely guy and a very brave man who had a wonderful sense of humour". He went on to say: "We grew up together and we just had so many beautiful times together—that's what I am going to remember. I'll always love him, he's my baby brother."
McCartney and Starr collaborated on several post-Beatles projects, starting in 1973 when McCartney contributed instrumentation and backing vocals for "Six O'Clock", a song McCartney wrote for Starr's album Ringo. McCartney played a kazoo solo on "You're Sixteen" from the same album. Starr appeared as a fictional version of himself in McCartney's 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street, and played drums on most tracks of the soundtrack album, which includes re-recordings of several McCartney-penned Beatles songs. Starr played drums and sang backing vocals on "Beautiful Night" from McCartney's 1997 album Flaming Pie. The pair collaborated again in 1998, on Starr's Vertical Man, which featured McCartney's backing vocals on three songs, and instrumentation on one. Since Harrison's death in 2001, McCartney has contributed to several of Starr's albums and the two have performed together on stage on several occasions.
