Paul and Linda McCartney Fell in Love Like a ‘Thunderbolt,’ Said a Friend: ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime Feeling’

In 1969, Paul and Linda McCartney married at the Marylebone Register Office. McCartney was the final Beatle to wed, and his marriage lasted the longest. The couple had a uniquely close and loving relationship, particularly for the entertainment industry. According to Beatles associate Tony Bramwell, the couple had a once-in-a-lifetime connection that appeared to develop over the course of a conversation.

Paul and Linda McCartney seemed to fall in love during a single conversation

McCartney had met Linda several times when he asked her to meet him in Los Angeles. Though they were really only acquaintances at this point, Linda agreed. McCartney had offered to buy her a plane ticket, but she purchased her own, surprising him when he walked through the front door and found her sitting amongst the other women staying in the house. 

“She was waiting for [Paul] radiantly, totally spaced out,” Bramwell said in the book Paul McCartney: The Life by Philip Norman. “She had a joint in her hand and a beatific smile on her face.”

According to Bramwell, McCartney seemed embarrassed. He had invited multiple other women to the house and now had to pretend they were there for Bramwell and his childhood friend Ivan Vaughn. He quickly shepherded Linda away from the crowd so they could have a more private conversation.

“Then Paul detached himself from the circus surrounding him and took Linda aside,” Bramwell said. “As I looked across the room, I suddenly saw something happen. Right before my eyes, they fell in love. It was like the thunderbolt the Sicilians speak of, the coup de foudre the French speak of in hushed tones, that once-in-a-lifetime feeling.”

Paul McCartney recalled the first night he met Linda McCartney

Before this, McCartney and Linda had met at the London nightclub Bag O’ Nails. She was a photographer and had gone to the club after a session with The Animals.

“So she was sitting in an alcove near the band, which was Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames — with Speedy Acquaye on bongos,” McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology. “They were always a big favourite of mine. I saw her and thought, ‘Hello…’ When she was about to leave the club, I stood up and said, ‘Hello, we haven’t met’ — which was a straight pull.”

After that night, the pair met on and off before he asked her if she wanted to stay in London with him. She agreed, though blanched when he began to think about marriage. Linda had been married once before and wasn’t sure she wanted to do it again. Eventually, though, the couple wed.

The couple hardly spent a night apart in their marriage

After the couple married, they hardly went a day without seeing each other. Though McCartney was a touring musician, Linda joined his band Wings as a keyboardist and joined him on the road. McCartney said that in the 29 years they were married, they only spent 10 nights apart. The separation was not by choice, either.

McCartney had traveled to Tokyo with half a pound of marijuana in his bag. He spent 10 days in jail and away from Linda.

“I am privileged to have been her lover for thirty years, and in all that time, except for one enforced absence, we never spent a single night apart,” McCartney said, per the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “When people asked why, we would say, ‘What for?'”

The couple remained married until Linda’s death in 1998.