Paul and Linda McCartney’s daughter Mary Anna McCartney was born on 28 August 1969.
Mary was named after Paul’s mother, who had died in 1956. She was born at 1.30am at the Avenue Clinic in north London, and weighed 6lb 8oz.
Linda had been four months pregnant when she and Paul married. She also had a seven-year-old daughter, Heather, from her previous marriage, who Paul adopted in 1969.
As our relationship solidified and we really started to feel very confident with each other, it was a question of ‘Well, shall I get off the pill then?’ and we talked about that, and I said, ‘Yeah!’ I don’t know why. It wasn’t like planning a family, it was more ‘If you like. We could see what happened. If anything happened. That would be all right.’ Then Mary was on the way, it was definitely not planned. And we decided, round about that point, to get married.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The Avenue Clinic stood at 12 Avenue Road in St John’s Wood, London, until its demolition in 1985. Paul and Linda’s son James was also born at the clinic on 12 September 1977.
Like her mother, Mary became a successful photographer. Her work has been displayed in galleries worldwide and in a variety of publications. In 2015 she photographed Queen Elizabeth II to commemorate the longest-reigning monarch in over 1,000 years.
She took me to her darkroom in Soho and printed a little 10-by-8-inch image herself, and it was just me and her. She took the small piece of blank white paper and put it into the tray, and then waved it from side to side, and I saw this black-and-white image magically appear. As a child the impact of that magic in that moment really went into my heart.
Mary McCartney directed the 2021 documentary If These Walls Could Sing, about Abbey Road Studios. It featured interviews with Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Kate Bush, Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Pink Floyd, John Williams, Celeste, Elton John, Giles Martin, and Shirley Bassey.
She has also written several vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, and hosted a Food Network show, Mary McCartney Serves It Up.
Mary McCartney was married to director and producer Alistair Donald from 1998 to 2007. They had two sons, Arthur and Elliot. She married Simon Aboud in 2010 and they also had two sons, Sam and Sid.
The fact that Paul named Mary after his late mother was a very loving thing to do and I’m sure that Mary, Sr. would’ve been very pleased to know this. It was very unfortunate that she died of breast cancer when Paul was only 14 years old and she never lived to see The Beatles become so massively successful.
I was a Beatle fan from day one, having first seen them on the Ed Sullivan show. Paul was my favorite and I still have my Beatles scrapbook, cards, lunch box etc. And, of course, all of their and Paul’s albums.
I always loved Linda. Loved how she was so supportive and beautiful when she could have been a major star in her own right.
And, loved that my favorite Beatle married an American.
Her passing was so sad and touched all of us.
I always remembered this pic from LIFE magazine where she looked like an angel after just giving birth.