Jane Asher and Paul McCartney (English Version)

MANY YEARS FROM NOW

In the mid-1990s, the surviving Beatles began work on Anthology, a multimedia retrospective project comprising a television documentary, a three-volume set of double albums and a book describing the Beatles' history. Paul was careful not to mention Jane.

PAUL: I always feel very wary including Jane in The Beatles' history. She's never gone into print about our relationship, whilst everyone on earth has sold their story. So I'd feel weird being the one to kiss and tell. We had a good relationship. Even with touring there were enough occasions to keep a reasonable relationship going. To tell the truth, the women at that time got sidelined. Now it would be seen as very chauvinist of us. Then it was like: 'We are four miners who go down the pit. You don't need women down the pit, do you? We won't have women down the pit.' A lot of what we, The Beatles, did was very much in an enclosed scene. Other people found it difficult - even John's wife, Cynthia, found it very difficult- to penetrate the screen that we had around us. As a kind of safety barrier we had a lot of 'in' jokes, little signs, references to music, we had a common bond in that and it was very difficult for any 'outsider' to penetrate. That possibly wasn't good for relationships back then.

At the same time Paul was busy telling his story in "Many Years From Now", a book written by Barry Miles. Again Paul avoided talking about Jane.

Barry Miles: Naturally I put a few things in the manuscript that I expected him to take out, hoping that this would protect other slightly contentious parts. In the event he left in the references to experimenting with cocaine and other drugs and only asked for two changes. One was a girlfriend who he had seen on-and-off for some years right up until the day before his marriage to Linda, who we cut out completely, and the other change was one of tone. Linda had been diagnosed with cancer and throughout the taping of the questions this fact hung heavily over the proceedings. As the book concerned only the Beatles period, with a final section on the death of John Lennon, it was inevitably very much about Jane Asher as well. In some sections, though by no means all, Paul asked for the phrase 'and Jane' to be taken out when I was describing some event they had attended together 'because it makes the book seem like the Paul and Jane story.' I could understand why he didn't want it to seem that way, particularly as Linda was ill, and so I made all the requested changes.

Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, and her condition soon worsened when it spread to her liver. She died at the age of 56 on 17 April 1998, at the McCartney family ranch in Tucson, Arizona.

THE INDEPENDENT •

Jane Asher, interviewed by journalist John Walsh - 30 May 1998

[...] "If you don't mind my asking, did you like Linda McCartney?" "I do mind you asking" - and her mouth clanged shut like a steel trap.