Heather, Mary, Stella, James, and Beatrice

Paul McCartney might be a music icon to the world, but at home, he’s just dad. The former Beatles legend has five children: Heather, Mary, Stella, James, and Beatrice.

The singer-songwriter married his first wife, Linda Eastman, in March 1969. McCartney adopted Eastman’s daughter from a previous marriage, Heather, the same year. Over the course of their nearly 30 year marriage, the couple welcomed three more children together: daughters Mary and Stella and son James.

Eastman died of breast cancer in 1998, with her four children and McCartney by her side, People reported. “Any love song I write is written for Linda,” the musician had told People the year before. 

In 2002, he married model Heather Mills. The couple welcomed their only child, a daughter named Beatrice, in 2003. Mills and McCartney separated three years later. Currently, McCartney is married to businesswoman Nancy Shevell. After crossing paths by chance in the Hamptons in 2007, the couple began dating and wed in October 2011.

With his kids all grown up, McCartney’s relationship with them has evolved. “As far as being a dad is concerned, I’ve always just tried to give my kids a bit of guidance, if they seem to need it—but that was mainly when they were younger,” he said in a 2023 interview posted to his official website.

“Now that they are older, they’re guiding me! They don’t need so much guidance these days but if there’s ever a problem, I’m very happy to be the guy they come to,” he added.

Heather Louise McCartney

McCartney’s first child, Heather Louise McCartney, was born on December 31, 1962 in Tucson, Arizona. She’s the daughter of Linda Eastman and Eastman’s then-husband, Joseph Melville See Jr. The couple divorced in 1965. 

Paul McCartney adopted Heather upon his marriage to Eastman in March 1969. The next year, she made her film debut in the Beatles movie Let It Be.

Like her musician father and photographer mother, Heather felt drawn to a creative career at a young age. She dabbled in photography, pottery, and design, even attending art school. According to the biography Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes, the eldest McCartney child took a photography course at the London College of Printing and won an award for one of her pictures in 1981.

In 1999, Heather launched her debut collection of homeware inspired by the Southwest and Mexico. McCartney came out to support his daughter, marking his first trip to the United States since the memorial service for his late wife and Heather’s mother, Linda.

“I’m happy to be here. (Heather) is a lovely girl and I’m very proud of her,” the Beatle said in an interview with ET at the event. He also spoke about how the family moved forward in the aftermath of Linda’s passing. “I think it’s just time, attention, and love—mainly love, because that’s all you need,” he told the outlet.

Heather later leaned into photography, and had her photos published in Vogue, The Sunday Times, and GQ. in 2015, she took an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth.

In more recent decades, 62-year-old Heather has stayed out of the public eye. In the 2021 documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, archival footage shows her spending time in the studio with her father’s famous band when she was a toddler.

Mary Anna McCartney

McCartney and Eastman welcomed their first child together, Mary Anna McCartney, on August 28, 1969. The Beatles would publicly disband the next year.

Like Eastman, Mary became a photographer, immersed in the art through childhood trips with her mother to her Soho darkroom. “My childhood gave me a curiosity for the behind-the-scenes moments: what happens before the main event. I love to see the practice that people go through to become the best in their field,” she told The Guardian in 2023 of how she came to photograph musicians. 

“It’s something I observed from my dad (Paul McCartney),” she added. “He has always been so supportive of my career and is the first person I show around an exhibition. He’s always genuinely interested. Often I’ll show him a selection of images and ask his opinion.”

In 2015, Mary had the opportunity to photograph Queen Elizabeth in celebration of her breaking the record as the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

“Having grown up during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, it was a thrill to meet her and a very great privilege to take her photo on this historic occasion,” Mary said in a statement to People. “She is a truly inspirational person, a trailblazer and a beacon for womankind.”

That portrait was one of many milestones in Mary’s impressive career. In 2020, she photographed a Rolling Stone cover featuring Taylor Swift and her dad for one of the magazine’s ‘Musicians on Musicians’ issues. The shoot held special significance for the creative, she shared in an Instagram post about the cover. “Life turning full circle 😊 (…) Thinking of my trailblazing mother who was the first female photographer to have a @rollingstone cover shot in 1968 of #EricClapton,” she captioned it.

Besides her work behind the camera, Mary’s also stepped in front of it, hosting the Emmy nominated Food Network series Mary McCartney Serves It Up from 2021 to 2022. The show featured celebrity guests like Simone Ashley, Oprah Winfrey, and Reese Witherspoon. A vegetarian like her parents and siblings, the 55-year-old has authored several cookbooks such as Linda McCartney’s Family Kitchen and The Meat Free Monday Cookbook.

Mary was previously married to director Alistair Donald from 1998 to 2007, and the couple share two sons: Arthur and Elliot. She wed filmmaker Simon Aboud in 2010. She and Aboud also have two sons together: Sam and Sid.

Stella Nina McCartney

McCartney and Eastman became parents again in 1971, welcoming daughter Stella Nina McCartney on September 13 of that year.

Her name is almost as recognizable as her father’s, having launched her eponymous luxury fashion house in October 2001 to great success. Among the highlights of the house: in 2018, she designed the reception dress for Meghan Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry. The brand also received an OBE for its excellence in the fashion industry.

For Stella, now 53, it all started when she began designing her own clothes as a pre-teen. At 16, she landed a coveted internship with Christian LaCroix in Paris. She also interned under Edward Sexton while in fashion school at Central Saint Martins in London. But her big break came in 1997: Stella became the creative director of Chloé at just 26 years old, a position she held until 2001, when she stepped down to launch her own brand.

Recalling skepticism that she was too young to helm Chloé, she told Vogue in 2020, “The Beatles wrote Sgt. Pepper when they were 26.”

Her brand is renowned for its environmental consciousness and sustainable, animal-free production as much as for its sophisticated, timeless designs. “Every single day in our office is this sort of daily challenge—a way of trying to perfect and persist and find realistic solutions within the luxury-fashion sector,” Stella said in the same Vogue interview.

In 2021, to honor the release of Beatles docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, Stella created a capsule collection inspired by her father’s band. “Timeless cultural staples, The Beatles are a forever phenomenon. A revolutionary band of change-makers, the British foursome redefined the activist power of song and its influence on politics and fashion – fighting for what matters, much like today’s generation,” she wrote of the capsule on the house’s website.

Since 2003, Stella has been married to publisher Alasdhair Willis. The pair had a secret ceremony in Scotland, per People. They share four children: sons Miller and Beckett and daughters Bailey and Reiley.

Stella’s son Beckett unintentionally inspired Paul McCartney’s 2019 children’s book, Hey Grandude. “One of (my eight grandchildren), who shall remain nameless—Beckett,” McCartney joked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “he just one day said, ‘Hey, Grandude!’ And he started calling me Grandude, so I thought, that’s a great idea. So I wrote some stories, and then these people found out and said, ‘Do you want a book?’ As simple as that.”

James Louis McCartney

Almost exactly six years after Stella’s arrival, McCartney and Eastman welcomed their first and only son, James Louis McCartney. He was born in London on September 12, 1977. He’s his father’s namesake, as the former Beatle’s full name is James Paul McCartney.

Per a 2017 Daily Herald interview, James grew up in East Sussex and studied art and sculpture at Bexhill College, graduating in 1998. The fourth McCartney child took after his father, becoming a singer-songwriter and musician—perhaps influenced by his early years following his parents on a Wings tour. 

A guitarist since age nine, when his father gave him his first Fender, James started out as an instrumentalist. He contributed to tracks like “The Light Comes From Within”—the final recording by Linda Eastman McCartney—and 2001’s “Driving Rain.” His solo career as a singer-songwriter began in 2010, when he released the EP Available Light.

“Music has been important to me my whole life,” the 47-year-old told the Herald. “Of course, as a kid, you always dream of being a fireman or policeman, so I did that as well,” he added.

In 2013, James released his debut album, Me. His musical father co-produced the record and its 2016 follow-up, The Blackberry Train. McCartney also provided backup vocals for one of the tracks on Me, “Thinking About Rock and Roll.”

McCartney and his son took the stage together in London in March 2013 to perform three songs together at the Ambassadors Theatre. Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood also joined them, as the gig was organized by his wife, Sally Humphries.

Following Blackberry’s release, the multi-talented artist took a break from music. He returned in 2024 with singles “Beautiful” and “Primrose Hill,” the latter in collaboration with late Beatle John Lennon’s son Sean Lennon. James’ third album, Beautiful Nothing, came out in October 2024.

Beatrice Milly McCartney

McCartney and his second wife, Heather Mills, welcomed one child together: daughter Beatrice Milly McCartney. Beatrice was born October 28, 2003, in London. 

Mills, who shared in a 2016 interview with Oprah Winfrey that she suffered two ectopic pregnancies and four miscarriages before welcoming Beatrice, called her daughter “a miracle child.” 

“I’m very proud of the fact that I have kept her image completely protected,” the model continued. “She’s not mixing in the celebrity lifestyle. She’s not out in public places where the whole celebrity thing goes on.”

In 2011, Beatrice served as the flower girl in her father’s wedding to Nancy Shevell, his current wife, according to People. The father and daughter were also spotted taking a stroll together in New York City in December 2013.

While some of her siblings have stepped into the spotlight, the 21-year-old has preferred to keep her life private. Most of what’s known about her comes from rare interviews by her mother. “She’s a brilliant poet so obviously gets that from (her father Paul), but I think she’s got the best of both of us,” Mills shared of the youngest McCartney child in a 2015 The Guardian interview. 

“Beatrice hates fame and the whole limelight thing. She wants to be a marine biologist, not a pop star,” she added.