Do You Remember Jane Asher?

How many of you remember Jane Asher?  Somehow or another I got to talking about Jane Asher yesterday with one of my coworkers.  I was a very little girl when The Beatles made it big, but I remember well Jane Asher who was Paul McCartney's girlfriend at the time.

Paul McCartney and Jane Asher were together from 1963 to 1968.  The couple lived together and were engaged to be married.  One afternoon Jane came home much earlier than Paul expected and she caught him in bed with American script writer Francie Schwartz.  Needless to say, that was the end of Paul and Jane.  Jane stormed out of their home after finding them together.  Later on Jane's mother arrived to get all of Jane's belongings.

I really liked Jane and Paul together, so I was disappointed that their relationship broke up but I certainly do not blame Jane one bit.  Cheating is the ultimately betrayal in a relationship and finding the one you love naked in bed with another doing "the deed" is simply unimaginable to me.  Especially when the one you love claims to love you and proposes marriage to you.  At the time I did not know that adultery was the reason for their breakup and I always wondered what happened.
 

Jane Asher was also an actress who had been acting since she was 5 years old.  Paul wanted Jane to give up her career and felt that being his girlfriend should be enough for her.  Jane however, was steadfast in having her own career and continued to perform in plays and a few movies.  Years later Paul did admit that reflecting back on that period in his life he realized how chauvanistic he was in wanting Jane to spend the rest of her life in his shadow.  As the saying goes hindsight is 20/20.

I think that things worked out for the best for Jane.  At least finding Paul in bed with another woman freed her to move on to a better life with another man who shares her values.  Perhaps Jane Asher was too clean cut for Paul McCartney?  Besides the cheating, Paul had started taking drugs.  As time went on Paul was changing quite a bit and to me the expression on Jane's face in the above and below photos shows the different direction that both were growing into.  Jane was deeply in love with Paul though and that can make a woman hang on to a man longer than she should.  Finding Paul with Francie Schwartz was probably the push out the door that Jane needed.  It was a blessing in disguise.
    

 

In 1971, Jane Asher started  dating illustrator Gerald Scarfe.  They lived together and then finally married in 1981.  Jane and Gerald have three children together; a daughter and two sons. 

This is a photo of Jane Asher today.  She is still married to Gerald Scarfe and as of this post Jane is 66 years old.  Over the years Jane wrote three best selling novels and is now having fun baking for pleasure and work.  You can learn more about Jane's love of baking at Jane Asher.com.

  
I cannot help but wonder if Paul McCatney ever wonders what his life would have been like if he had not screwed up things with Jane Asher.  I know that he had a lasting marriage to Linda Eastman, but Linda lost her battle with an illness and Jane Asher is still alive and healthy.  She has been with the same man since 1971.  Paul is now on his third marriage.  Was a piece of ass that wasn't Jane's that day back in 1968 worth it all in his eyes?