Paul McCartney’s ex-fiancée Jane Asher gives verdict on Beatles biopics: “I won’t watch”
Jane Asher has revealed that she has no plans to watch Sam Mendes’ forthcoming quartet of Beatles biopics, in which she will be portrayed by Lucy Boynton.
The actor, now 80, dated Paul McCartney from 1963 until 1968, with the couple announcing their engagement in 1967 before separating the following year.
Their relationship will form part of The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, Mendes’ ambitious series of four interconnected films telling the band’s story from the perspective of each member.
Asher will be played by Bohemian Rhapsody actor Boynton, opposite Paul Mescal as McCartney.
Speaking in a new interview with The Telegraph, Asher revealed that the filmmakers had contacted her about the project.
“They approached me about it, of course, but I said my usual,” she explained, referring to her long-standing decision not to discuss her relationship with the Beatle publicly.
Asked what she made of Boynton being cast as her, Asher replied: “Well, of course, Lucy is beautiful. But I won’t watch the films, otherwise everyone will ask me what I thought.”
She went on to explain that she had made a conscious decision decades ago to stop answering questions about her time with McCartney.
“People would offer me money to talk about it, all sorts of things,” she said. “But I won’t discuss it. It was so long ago.”
Asher and McCartney met in 1963, when she interviewed The Beatles at the Royal Albert Hall as a teenager. McCartney later moved into the Asher family home in London, where he lived for several years.
The relationship fed into a number of songs written during one of The Beatles’ most prolific periods, including ‘And I Love Her’ and ‘I’m Looking Through You’. ‘For No One’, from 1966’s ‘Revolver’, has also long been associated with difficulties in the relationship.
Asher announced that their engagement had ended during a BBC television appearance in 1968.
McCartney married Linda McCartney in 1969, remaining with her until her death in 1998. He later married Heather Mills in 2002 before their divorce in 2008, and has been married to Nancy Shevell since 2011.
Mescal recently said filming on the Beatles films would occupy him for much of 2026, and the first images of the principal cast in character were unveiled earlier this year.
Alongside Mescal, Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon, Joseph Quinn will portray George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan will star as Ringo Starr. The supporting cast also includes Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono, Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey.
The four films will be the first scripted Beatles movies made with the full approval of Apple Corps and the surviving band members, as well as access to the group’s music rights.
Each instalment will tell the story from a different Beatle’s point of view, with the narratives intersecting across the four films. All four are currently scheduled to arrive in cinemas simultaneously in April 2028.
Earlier this year, Pattie Boyd said nobody involved with the films had contacted her about her portrayal, saying: “I could have really told them great stories.”
McCartney himself, meanwhile, has given Mescal his approval, describing the actor as “very cute” before the pair sat down together for an interview earlier this year.
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