One of the first girls Paul McCartney ever dated as The Beatles rose to fame was Jane Asher. Here’s the story of how the musician and actress met.
Jane Asher was an accomplished actor when she met Paul McCartney
Before Asher, McCartney dated his fair share of Beatles super fans. But no one he shared a serious connection with. Asher was different. At 17, when the two met, she still lived at home with her wealthy parents, a psychiatrist and professional musician, according to the Beatles biography The Love You Make by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines. Before the Beatles, McCartney probably wouldn’t have had a chance with a girl like Asher.
While McCartney was part of one of the most popular bands of the day with his star only rising, Asher was by no means a nobody when she met the Beatle.
Asher appeared in her first film at the age of five. She played a deaf and mute character in the movie Mandy. She was also a stage actor, with several roles on the West End. Asher was the youngest actress to play the part of Wendy in Peter Pan on the English stage. She also played the young ingenue in the Walt Disney film production of The Prince and the Pauper. Additionally, Asher took on various hosting gigs, which is how she met McCartney.
How Paul McCartney and Jane Asher met
McCartney and Asher met at a pop concert at the Royal Albert Hall. At the time, Asher was a frequent panelist on the TV show, Juke Box Jury. McCartney recognized her from the show right away. She was at the concert as the “teen reporter” for the BBC’s “Radio Times.” The two of them were introduced between acts when the Beatles were asked to pose for a photo with her.
After the show, Asher met up with the band at the Royal Court Hotel for a meal and some coffee. After that, they went to the nearby home of a journalist.
Paul and Jane hit it off
It was clear all the boys in the band had a crush on Asher. But she seemed to smile at McCartney the most.
“When it became obvious later in the evening that Paul was swooning over her, the others left on the pretext of getting dinner to give Paul some time alone with her,” reads TLYM. “Much to their surprise, when they returned to the flat two hours later, Paul and Jane were still sitting in the same place, engrossed in a conversation about, of all things, favorite foods. Paul had never made a move toward her.”
McCartney fell in love with his new beau quickly, but perhaps with the idea of her more than the whole girl herself.
