Powell & Asher

Jane Asher in the audience s reaming for The Beatles at Royal Albert Hall on April 18, 1963 when Jane attended on behalf of Radio Times for an article she was writing for. After the performance, Jane went backstage to meet with the Beatles and soon started a five year relationship with Paul McCartney.

You would think that with a tight close partnership between Lennon & McCartney would mean that Cynthia and Paul's girlfriend Jane Asher would have a similar relationship... Unfortunately, not so. Do not get me wrong: I am not saying at all that Cynthia and Jane didn't along. Very much the opposite. What it is was that Cynthia and Jane did not spend as much time as we would love to think. Honestly, I think the most time Cynthia and Jane had together was when they were in India; Jane was there for over a month (Cynthia longer than that with Pattie; meanwhile, Maureen lasted 10 days) in 1968, the same year they parted from John and Paul. Another thing is that the only proper holiday (vacation) Jane and Cynthia had was Greece, while shopping for an island... I'll save that for another day... in July of 1967. The main reason for their less time together was because Jane was a very popular and hard working actress (as she is today), so, Jane would be traveling for plays or on location to film while Cynthia spent her time with Maureen and Pattie. 

Jane Asher was born on April 5, 1946 in London to Richard and Margaret Asher. Richard was an accomplished Doctor and Margaret a music school teacher who taught George Martin the oboe around the time Jane was a baby. Who knew it would be a small world when George produced The Beatles and Paul would be living in the Asher family home where Margaret taught him the recorder (something he played on his recent album, McCartney III!)? By the time Jane was five, she became a successful actress and was already famous by the time Paul became famous by 1963. The Beatles used to watch Jane on television and always thought she was a blonde (thanks to black & white TV). Boy, were they wrong! John met Jane backstage at Royal Albert Hall after The Beatles concert while she was there on behalf of Radio Times as a guest writer on April 18, 1963. To his, and everyone else's, surprise, Jane was a redhead! That night, Paul chatted her up and Jane was soon his girlfriend. John's marriage and new fatherhood was kept secret at the time; Paul openly dated Jane, they were publicly photographed. Brian hit the roof! Paul didn't care. Brian relented, thinking it's okay to have a girlfriend, but a wife? No, no, NO. Two months after John meeting Jane, Cynthia first met her at Paul's 21st birthday at his Aunt's home in Liverpool on June 18, 1963.

“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 was of Jane was how beautiful and finely featured she was.  Her mass of titian-colored hair cascaded around her face and shoulders, her pale complexion contrasting strongly with dark clothes and shining hair. Paul was obviously as proud as a peacock with his new lady. For Paul, Jane Asher was a great prize.” 

Cynthia from her book, A Twist of Lennon, 1978

Jane, Paul, and John getting off the plane from Greece at London Airport on July 31, 1967

A couple of months later, Margaret welcomed Paul into the family home in London as he didn't yet have a home base other than hotels. It became very clear that their frequent trips to London were enough to start a new home base rather than going to Liverpool every so often. Soon, George and Ringo got an apartment as did John with Cynthia and Julian. Paul had his own room on the top floor. Unlike John and Cynthia living under Mimi's roof while dating, Paul and Jane managed to risk it. After Paul moved into the Asher family home, John was a frequent visitor, writing songs with Paul in the music room located in the basement.

"We wrote a lot of stuff together, one-on-one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in I Want To Hold Your Hand, I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had ‘Oh you-u-u… got that something…’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’ In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that – both playing into each other’s nose." 

John, 1980

In 1966, Paul bought his home in St. John's Wood near Abbey Road Studios which Jane decorated (she also somewhat decorated the Scotland farm, purchased around about the same time as St. John's Wood). From my understanding, Jane's decorative taste at St. John's Wood lasted a long time until Paul let his second wife Heather Mills to remodel and renovation to have the house up to date and modernized. Well, since this is a John and Cyn blog, time to examine Jane's relationship with the Lennons:

As far as I can tell, Jane liked John and Cynthia and vice versa. It's rather hard to know because Jane NEVER talks about her time with Paul or The Beatles- more about that near the end. However, from both of Cynthia's books, she wrote about Jane in a positive light, there was definitely a good friendship. Jane confided in Cynthia about Paul wanting her to settle down while she wanted to continue to act, which was a major problem in their relationship; Paul even sang about it (I'm Looking Through You, You Won't See Me). 

"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 the time got sidelined. Now it would be seen as very chauvinist of us... 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

Jane watching over Julian and Paul in Greece, July of 1967

Jane and Cynthia had their share of outings, like having a meal, seeing movies, theatre, watching television at homes, going to parties, premieres, and what not. Cynthia and Jane attended the premiere of Help! at the London Pavilion on July 29, 1965; weird thing about it is that Jane didn't walk the red carpet with Paul as John and Cynthia did. Come to think about it, a similar thing happened a year before at the premiere of A Hard Day's Night on July 6, 1964. Maybe Brian said no togetherness on the red carpet for girlfriends? Pattie also is said to go to both premieres, so far no photos for proof. There is a photo of Jane at the Help! premiere, accompanying Paul's father Jim and stepmother Angie. Well, that rule of no girlfriend on the red carpet was broken when Paul was at Jane's side at her premiere of Alfie at Plaza Haymarket Theatre in London on March 24, 1966. The next year, on October 18, 1967, Jane accompanied Paul to the premiere of How I Won the War, staring John, at the London Pavilion. During the summer of 1967, John, Cynthia, Julian, Paul, Jane, George, Pattie, and Ringo (without Maureen, who was heavily pregnant) went to Greece in hopes of buying their own island, sightseeing and flocking in the sea in between Island shopping. From the looks of photographs and home movies (that aired on The Beatles Anthology), Jane acted very maternal with Julian: from watching over him on the boat, swimming in the sea with Paul, and holding his hand while dancing around a circle in a traditional Greek dance. Jane was quite fond of Julian... not sure on how she feels about him today... I don't think they've seen each other for about 50 years now. Okay, before I go off on my thoughtful ramble, let me continue on as I'm almost done: During the summer of 1967, Pattie and George got influenced by meditation and embracing the Indian culture (especially George), they roped John, Cynthia, Ringo, Maureen, Paul, and Jane into their interests. They started attending Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's lectures in Bangor (when Cynthia missed the train; Neil Aspinall gave her and Jane, who managed to rearranged her acting schedule, a ride to join everyone. However, the trip got seriously tampered by the death of Brian Epstein. Yet they continued to learn more on meditation, agreeing to go to India to study more. 

Cynthia, Paul, and Jane in Rishikesh, India, Spring of 1968

On February 16, 1968, John and Cynthia (with George and Pattie), went first to Rishikesh; Paul and Jane (with Ringo and Maureen) followed on February 19th. I'm not too sure on how long this thing was supposed to last.... Ringo and Maureen lasted 10 days. I promise to dive deeper into this meditation experience in a different post, but for here, I'm only going to keep it light: I don't think neither Jane nor Cynthia were all that interested as George, Pattie, maybe John were. Jane was more interested in going sightseeing like the Taj Mahal, but was literally trapped and isolated at the meditation camp, in the mountains. Transportation? Let's just say it was better to arrive and leave once. Cynthia was mainly there hoping to save her marriage with John, who showed no interest in doing so, largely ignoring Cynthia about 97% of the time. He was more interested in going to the mail to find another letter from Yoko, unbeknownst to Cynthia. Paul and Jane left on March 25, 1968 while John and Cynthia returned to England by April 12th. Very soon, by the summer of 1968, John and Cynthia were over. Then, Jane caught Paul with another woman and promptly dumped him, ending their engagement. It's an odd coincidence that both couples ended on a similar circumstances... the only difference was that Paul did feel remorseful and depressed while John felt pride and unapologetic. I would think that Cynthia and Jane would get together in comfort, bonded by heartbreak, but it doesn't seem that happened at all as Cynthia consistently stated she saw no one except for Paul when he wrote Hey Jude for Julian. I believe the only time Cynthia and Jane saw each other was when they attended the the Let It Be premiere on May 20, 1970 at the London Pavilion where they had to watch Yoko and Linda on screen canoodling with their exes. Must have been quite awkward to watch that. None of the Beatles attended the premiere... perhaps much to their relief.

"I just don't understand. I never knew what he wanted in a woman because I never knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted something intelligent or something arty. But you don't really know what you want until you find it. So anyway, I was very surprised with Linda. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd married Jane because it had been going on for a long time and they went through a whole ordinary love scene. But with Linda it was just like -- boom! She was in and that was the end of it" 

John, 1971

Well, as far as I know, Jane and Cynthia never saw each other again. I think the only people Jane saw was Ringo and his wife Barbara Bach in the 1980s (Jane happily posed with Ringo for photos) and occasionally sees Pattie at mutual events. Right away since the breakup, Jane decided to keep her memories of Paul and The Beatles quiet as the experience was a personal one. Oh, yes, people tried to break that rule, and there had been some little innuendos here and there, yet she's incredibly tight flipped on the whole thing. It was her choice to keep her memories private and believes it's insulting to talk about past loves while being married to her husband for almost 40 years. I don't know what Jane felt when John died in 1980 or Cynthia in 2015, I'm sure she felt sad and grieve in private for her late friends. 

Paul, Jane, and Cynthia in Rishikesh, India, 1968