When Jane Asher left Paul McCartney in shock by breaking up with him live on TV

29 June 2023, 11:08 | Updated: 26 September 2023, 14:08

The Beatles were, without doubt, the biggest band of the 1960s.

Everyone was obsessed with them, and by 1963 they'd broken through as the next big thing out of Britain when 'From Me To You' topped the UK charts in April that year.

That same month, the burgeoning pop icons played a special show at London's Royal Albert Hall, an indication of a band very much on an upward curve.

To capture The Beatles' growing influence over that generation's youth, Radio Times sent a young actress and journalist named Jane Asher to document the phenomenon.

The subsequent article showed a calm and collected photo of Asher, whilst the second showed her screaming right beside The Beatles, with her initial reaction being: "Now these I could scream for."

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Later that night she met Paul McCartney for the first time, and the pair immediately connected. Paul revealed what happened that evening in a later interview:

"We’d thought she was blonde, because we had only ever seen her on black-and-white telly doing Juke Box Jury, but she turned out to be a redhead."

So it was: ‘Wow, you’re a redhead!’," he added. "I tried pulling her, succeeded, and we were boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a long time."

And they were an item for five years in total. That was until Jane Asher decided to break up with Macca on live television without him having any prior knowledge.

But how did their relationship end in such acrimonious and cold circumstances, especially when things got off to such a whirlwind start?

After Paul and Jane dated for a while, Asher's parents invited him to stay in the attic of their West End home, and Paul was introduced to cultural delights London had to offer on a daily basis.

It was in that attic he wrote a handful of The Beatles' early hits, including some which were directly inspired by his love for Jane like 'All My Loving', 'And I Love Her', and 'Every Little Thing'.

John Lennon's first wife Cynthia wrote in her memoir: "Paul fell like a ton of bricks for Jane. The first time I was introduced to her was at her home and she was sitting on Paul’s knee. My first impression of Jane was how beautiful and finely featured she was."

"Her mass of Titian-coloured hair cascaded around her face and shoulders, her pale complexion contrasting strongly with her dark clothes and shining hair," she continued.

"Paul was obviously as proud as a peacock with his new lady. For Paul, Jane Asher was a great prize."

All My Loving (Remastered 2009)

Paul McCartney & Jane Asher BBC -1968

But during the Rubber Soul period around 1965, things between the two began to sour as Paul focused on the band rather than his relationship.

Paul wrote 'We Can Work It Out' as a means of proving they could get their romance back on track, and he eventually proposed to Asher in a bid to make it work.

But his misgivings were the final straw for Jane, who caught Paul in bed with American Francie Schwartz in 1968 having come home early from an acting job.

She broke up with Paul, and proceeded to humiliate him live on television.

In July of that year, Jane appeared on the chat show Dee Time, and nobody expected her to drop the bombshell that she was breaking up with Paul.

Telling the host Simon Dee, Asher said: "I haven’t broken it off, but it’s finished", indicating that their five-year relationship was dead and buried.

I know it sounds corny, but we still see each other and love each other, but it hasn’t worked out. Perhaps we’ll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we’re about 70."

It clearly must've been a shock for Paul to receive the news via television than in person, but the two moved on (Paul swiftly met Linda Eastman, later Linda McCartney) and they continue to remember each other fondly.

"We had a good relationship. Even with touring, there were enough occasions to keep a reasonable relationship going," Paul admitted later down the line.

"To tell the truth, the women at that time got sidelined. Now it would be seen as very chauvinist of us. Once or twice we talked about getting married, and plans were afoot but I don’t know, something really made me nervous about the whole thing."

"It just never settled with me, and as that’s very important for me, things must feel comfortable for me, I think it’s a pretty good gauge if you’re lucky enough."

You’re not always lucky enough, but if they can feel comfortable then there’s something very special about that feeling. I hadn’t quite managed to be able to get it with Jane."

Paul also admired Jane's discretion after they parted ways, given she's never "gone to print" to sell her story of their life together.

Despite Jane saying on television that "perhaps we’ll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we’re about 70," that obviously wasn't the case.

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Jane shares three adult children with her cartoonist husband Gerald Scarfe who she met in 1971 and later wed in 1981.

Though there's always a chance for hopeless romances out there, given that Paul recently dedicated his latest photography to Jane, commenting on the section of the exhibition named Home With The Ashers:

"With Jane as inspiration…the results are more intimate and considered than other photographs he took at the time."