Paul McCartney’s Relationship With Jane Asher Saw Him Make Secretive Escapes From Her Parents’ House
Paul McCartney has had several high-profile relationships in his life. His songwriting partnership and friendship with John Lennon and his first marriage to Linda Eastman might be the most memorable. Yet Paul’s relationship with Jane Asher, his first longtime girlfriend, was also notable, even though she pointed out his selfish and insecure behavior. When he moved in with her family, Paul’s escape route from Asher’s parents’ house involved a dangerous display of dexterity for The Beatles’ bassist.
Paul McCartney’s relationship with Jane Asher lasted roughly 5 years
Paul and The Beatles found rising fame in 1963. The band’s debut album, Please Please Me, became a massive hit in England. It was the first of eight straight studio albums that topped the English charts, per the Official Charts Company.
With the fame came the adoration of female fans, but Paul’s relationship with Asher was a match of near-equals. She was a child actor with several film and TV roles to her name before she and Paul met in 1963. Macca and Asher remained together for several years and got engaged in late 1967. She went with him to India when The Beatles visited Rishikesh for their spiritual retreat in early 1968.
Paul and Asher eventually moved into his London home. Before that, though, Macca lived at Asher’s parents’ house at the height of Beatlemania. While he lived there, Paul routinely made secretive — and dangerous — escapes from the home to avoid the mass of fans.
Paul escaped Asher’s parents’ house by climbing out the window
Around-the-clock admiration (more like stalking) came with the territory for The Beatles in 1963. The fact that Paul started a relationship with Asher didn’t deter the fans. They tracked him down at Asher’s parents’ house in London and started hanging around the front steps, writes Peter Ames Carlin in Paul McCartney: A Life.
Paul lived in the attic, but he rarely used the front door. Asher’s father, Dr. Peter Asher, devised a way for The Beatles’ bassist to leave the house without running into the throngs of fans waiting for him, write Ames Carlin:
“Dr. Asher developed a secret escape route for his daughter’s famous boyfriend, a vertiginous crawl out of his bedroom window, across a thin stone parapet into the window of the top-floor flat of a retired army officer next door. ‘Coming through, Colonel!’ Paul would call through the window, and the elderly gent would let him in and show him to the elevator, which Paul rode to the bottom floor, where a young couple let him into their kitchen, then out through the garage door.”
Google Earth reveals that the Asher’s house (at 57 Wimpole St. in London) was a five-story building with the attic window set back from the facade. One slip on the narrow ledge could have spelled disaster. Yet Paul was so committed to his relationship with Asher at the time that he risked a dangerous fall so he wouldn’t disturb the family’s comings and goings.
The couple broke up in 1968, and Macca married Linda Eastman the following year
Asher and Paul’s relationship didn’t last. She dumped him on live TV in the summer of 1968 after she discovered him having an affair.
Yet it all worked out for the talented musician. Paul initially met Linda Eastman in 1967, and they met again in her native New York in early 1968. Macca began his romantic relationship with Linda soon after Asher broke it off with him. Paul married Linda in March 1969 in a wedding that proved how far apart The Beatles had grown. That relationship had legs. Paul and Linda remained married until her 1998 death.
Paul McCartney’s relationship with Jane Asher had him climbing out her parents’ attic window so The Beatles fans hoping to see him wouldn’t swarm the front door when he left. The romance didn’t last, but Macca moved on and found lasting love with his first wife, Linda.
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