Jane Asher announces her separation from Paul McCartney

On this day, Jane Asher was invited on Simon Dee’s BBC Television show “Dee Time“, and publicly announced that her engagement to Paul McCartney had been called off, an announcement that surprised Paul himself.

This was also the first public confirmation that Paul and Jane had become officially engaged seven months earlier when Paul proposed on Christmas Day and gave her an emerald and diamond engagement ring.

I haven’t broken it off, but it is broken off, finished. 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.

Jane Asher, interviewed by Simon Dee, on the BBC Television show Dee Time

She repeated the same message in an interview with the London Evening Standard on October 12, 1968:

I know it sounds corny but we’re still very close friends. We really are. We see each other and we love each other, but it hasn’t worked out. That’s all there is to it. Perhaps we’ll be childhood sweethearts and meet and get married again when we’re about seventy. Do you know, after we broke up, lots of my old flames started ringing me up to see if I was going to be in circulation again.

Jane Asher – From Evening Standard – October 12, 1968

Speculation about the couple began to circulate when Paul attended the “Yellow Submarine” premiere three days earlier without Jane by his side.

Paul left London for his father’s home in Cheshire shortly after the announcement and gave brief interviews from there the following day without giving any detail.

Weeks before Jane’s announcement, in early June 1968, Paul began a relationship with an American scriptwriter named Francie Schwartz. While Jane Asher was on tour with the Old Vic Theatre Company, he invited Francie to stay at his Cavendish Avenue residence in London. One day, Jane Asher surprised Paul and Francie in bed, and shortly thereafter, Jane’s mother arrived to collect her belongings.

[Paul] was still angry about the day Jane came over. We had been asleep (at least he was) and she walked right in and knocked on the bedroom door. He whispered disdainfully, “Who is it?“

“Jane.”

He was out of bed in a minute, grabbing the midi coat that always hung on the back of the door. He looked like a gay flasher. I could almost hear Jane breathing. I dove under the pillows until the soft talking sounds grew a bit louder. Then I pecked through the second door and saw them walking down the stairs, silent.

Francie Schwartz – From “Body Count“, 1972

Margo Stevens, [one of the fans so-called the Apple Scruffs], was just beginning her second year of standing outside 7 Cavendish Avenue. […] She had been standing there so long, Paul vaguely recognised her now. She knew how to open the security gates by kicking them, and had done so once for him when he could not find his key. Latterly, on the recommendation of his housekeeper, Rosie, he had even trusted her to take Martha the sheepdog for walks on Hampstead Heath.

‘It was a summer day: we were all standing there as usual,’ Margo says. ‘Jane was on tour with a play, and Paul brought home this American girl, Francie Schwartz. He waved to us as they drove in. Later on, another car turned into Cavendish Avenue – it was Jane. She’d come back to London earlier than she was supposed to. We did our best to warn Paul. Someone went to the Entryphone, buzzed it and yelled, “Look out! Jane’s coming!” Paul didn’t believe it. “Ah, pull the other one,” he said.

‘Jane went into the house. A bit later on, she came storming out again and drove away. Later still, a big estate car drew up. It was Jane’s mother. She went inside and started bringing out all kinds of things that were obviously Jane’s – cooking pots and big cushions and pictures.

‘We all thought after that they must have finished with each other for good. But the next day, a whole crowd of us were in Hyde Park. Who did we run into but Paul and Jane. They were walking along, holding hands and eating ice lollies.’

From “Shout!: The True Story of the Beatles” by Philip Norman, 2004

After dinner, the rain came down, Paul was silent, then animated and weird. “You’ll have to go. I’ve got to have this talk with Mrs. Asher.”

The Amazon mother had shown up on two evenings when Paul was at the studio, opening doors with her own keys. She lugged suitcases and boxes full of Jane’s things down the stairs to her station wagon. She oozed hostility. The first time, I sat frozen to the couch in my robe. The second time, I asked her if there was anything I could do, and she must have sensed my apprehension. The mother in her came out and, together, we packed cookbooks and art books. She was very hung up on her terrific daughter in a way that reminded me of how my own mother would have acted.

She wrote Paul a note, and sealed the envelope in front of me. […]

He was sad, but a little proud. He sounded as if he had turned over these words in his head many times before. “l’ve told her that I’ve met a girl who’s offering me something Jane never could, that’s all.” It sounded like enough. It was what I needed, and at that moment I began to trust him.

Francie Schwartz – From “Body Count“, 1972

I watched the show with Paul and his father. This wave of shocked silence went through all of us. It was painful because she was announcing it publicly, and she didn’t leave it up to him. That’s the one thing Paul never wants to happen. He really is a control person.

Francie Schwartz – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

In mid-June, Paul went to Los Angeles for Apple’s promotional events. He invited Linda Eastman, a photographer he had last met in May 1968 during a promotional trip to New York with John Lennon and who would become his wife in March 1969, to join him, allowing them time to get to know each other better.

Following weeks of a lacklustre relationship with Francie Schwartz, Paul reached out to Linda Eastman in mid-August 1968 and extended an invitation for her to come and visit him in London.

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.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

I think inevitably when I moved to Cavendish Avenue, I realised that she and I weren’t really going to be the thing we’d always thought we might be. 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 McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

Paul was absolutely devastated. Jane’s departure shattered him. I have never quite been sure if it was because he really loved Jane or because he was so shocked that she had the nerve to turn down Paul McCartney. And let’s not forget, they were engaged by now. She wasn’t just his girlfriend, she was definitely going to be his wife. Afterwards, he had a succession of one-night stands, although often the relationship did not even last that long. […] We spent weeks together after the end of his love affair with Jane. It completely threw him. He pleaded with Jane to forgive him but she was implacable. […] Paul literally cried on my shoulder. We hit the bottle together. Hard. He always seemed to feel lonely at night and the phone would go and Paul would say, ‘Al, get a cab and come on up to Cavendish.’ […]

We would sit up at Cavendish Avenue until 3.00am and he would talk about what a prat he had been. ‘I had everything and I threw it away,’ he would say. ‘Jane wasn’t just my woman, she was my closest friend. I’ve told her everything inside me. She knows what makes me tick down to things that happened as a kid. I went right through all the stuff about my mother dying and how I dealt with that. With Jane, I could just relax completely and be myself and that seemed to be what she wanted. With the other women, I’m a fucking millionaire rock star who just happens to be about as shallow as a puddle.’

Alistair Taylor – From “With The Beatles“, 2011

Paul was rarely without a complex motive, that perhaps even he didn’t understand. Essentially, he was always the very sweet Liverpool boy I had grown up with. Like me, he found it hard to hurt people’s feelings, and he seemed to know that the only way to break his engagement was to make Jane do it herself. Intended or not, that’s what happened. […]

The engagement was over. Margaret Asher turned up to regretfully collect her daughter’s belongings because she was very fond of Paul. It seemed Paul regretted falling out with Margaret more than with Jane. He adored that wonderful, motherly figure who had been so kind to him, but now the road was clear for him to go after a woman he could be true to.

Tony Bramwell – From “Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles“, 2005

Jane and Beatle

Paul split up ACTRESS Jane Asher announced on BBC television last night that her five-year romance with Beatle Paul McCartney was over.

She denied that it was she who broke off their seven-month-old engagement, but added: “It’s finished.”

Close friends of the couple reacted immediately. They said the broken romance may be only a temporary hitch, for they think Paul is still very much in love with the red-haired actress.

Paul himself would say nothing when he left London for his father’s home in the North of England shortly after the surprise announcement on Dee Time. And later Jane, the 22-year-old daughter of a Harley-street specialist, said: “I don’t want to say anything about it.”

She made her earlier TV statement calmly and without emotion. Simon Dee had asked: “Did YOU break it off ?”

“I haven’t broken it off, but it’s finished,” she said. She added that it happened more than “a couple of days ago.” Jane and Paul were engaged last Christmas Day. Paul gave her an emerald and diamond ring.

Then speculation about the romance rose last week when Paul was alone at a celebration party for the Beatles film Yellow Submarine.

The six-year-old marriage between 27-year-old Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Cynthia, is also in difficulties. Earlier this month John said: “I love Yoko Ono” — a 34-year-old Japanese actress.

From Sunday Mirror – July 21, 1968

Paul stays silent about break-up

MYSTERY still surrounded the break-up of Beatle Paul McCartney’s romance with actress Jane Asher yesterday. Speaking of the broken courtship which Jane revealed at the week-end, Paul said: “I’m just going to wait and see what happens.” Then he added: “Jane is still a very beautiful girl.“

Answering questions by Simon Dee in BBC TV’s “Dee Time” show, Jane, 22, said : “I haven’t broken it off, but it’s finished.” The secret surprised close friends who were expecting the couple to marry this year. They became engaged at Christmas.

After meeting at London’s Royal Albert Hall, they had been “going steady” for five years.

Yesterday Paul, relaxing at his father’s £15,000 home at Gayton, Wirral, Cheshire, refused to answer questions about Jane or the romance. He said he had been watching “Opportunity Knocks” on ITV when Jane revealed the secret on the Dee Time show.

Then, before he signed autography for three German fans, came the hint that the romance might not be over yet. with the words: “Jane is still a very beautiful girl.” Earlier, a family friend had said: “We think this is just a tiff.”

After flying home from India, Paul denied a report that he was going to marry soon, but added: “If there’s any girl I would marry it’s Jane — but I’m not going to name a day.“

From Daily Record – July 22, 1968

CONNOLLY ON SATURDAY

[Jane Asher:] “I know it sounds corny but we’re still very close friends. We really are. We see each other and we love each other, but it hasn’t worked out. That’s all there is to it. Perhaps we’ll be childhood sweethearts and meet and get married again when we’re about seventy. Do you know, after we broke up, lots of my old flames started ringing me up to see if I was going to be in circulation again.” […]

From Evening Standard – October 12, 1968

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