Stella McCartney has opened up about how hurt her mother Linda was by the bullying she received from fans of her husband Paul at the height of The Beatles’ fame.
Paul McCartney first crossed paths with Linda Eastman in 1966, before they were properly introduced the following year. The couple tied the knot in 1961 and, following the disbanding of The Beatles in 1970, performed together in the band Wings.
Having previously worked as a photographer, whose images had appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, Linda didn’t come from a musical background, but sang and played keys in the group. As a result, she faced criticism from fans who questioned her inclusion and whether she was a deserving member of Wings.
The hatred sent to Linda – who died of cancer in 1998 aged 56 – is discussed by the couple’s fashion designer daughter Stella, 54, in the new archival documentary, Paul McCartney: Man on the Run.
In the film, which arrives on Prime Video on 27 February following a limited cinema release last week, Stella opened up about the impact of the criticism on her mother.
“She wasn’t a cookie-cutter example of someone you put in a band. What they, and she especially, had to go through, like when they isolated her voice and ridiculed her? I mean, it breaks my heart,” she said. “I know that there was pain there. I knew she hurt. She wasn’t cold.”
It was Paul, 83, who taught Linda to play keyboard following The Beatles’ split, with Paul admitting in the documentary that the idea of his wife to join Wings came to him in the “spur of the moment”.
However, he was quick to defend his late first wife, describing how he disagreed with the critics who said: “She can’t do this, she can’t sing, she can’t play piano, she can’t do anything. Oh, they’re crazy man, what’s he got his old lady in the band for? Who the hell is this?’”
Instead, Paul said that Linda gave the songs a “special sound”. The couple, who had four children together, performed in Wings alongside Denny Laine on guitar and vocals, while Denny Seiwell played drums.
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As Wings, the McCartneys won several Grammy Awards, and even earned an Oscar nomination for their James Bond theme “Live and Let Die”.
While Wings split in 1981, Linda continued to perform with Paul until 1993. Having first gone vegetarian in 1975, the couple created a range of vegetarian foods under Linda’s name in 1991.
Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, and died of the disease in 1998. Paul went on to remarry twice more: to Heather Mills from 2002 to 2008, and to Nancy Shevell in 2011.
