Paul McCartney met Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on September 8, 2022, several times throughout his life, beginning with the queen’s first handshake with the Beatles in 1963. But years later, the former Fab Four member added an interesting detail to those memories: According to his wife, Nancy Shevell, the queen had a crush on him.
During an appearance on Good Hang With Amy Poehler, McCartney, 84, answered a question about which famous person, among those he had met, had impressed him the most. “The queen,” he replied. “That’s an autograph you’re not going to get. She’s great. I love the queen.”
When Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952, McCartney was just 10 years old. On the day of her coronation, in the Speke neighborhood of Liverpool, families gathered in front of the television to watch the ceremony in black and white. At the same time, McCartney had entered a school essay contest on the monarchy, winning in his category. He would meet the monarch for the first time a little over 10 years later, when the Beatles were already on the road to success. “She was a babe,” he said. “So we kind of liked her in other ways we shouldn’t have liked her,” he recounted, joking about the admiration he and his peers felt for the young queen.
The story of the alleged crush is from the musician’s third wife, who, according to McCartney, told him, “She fancied you.” And he replied, “Now there’s no knowing if there’s any truth to that…but I like to think it’s true.”
McCartney has always remembered the late queen fondly, appreciating her sense of humor above all else. In 1997, when he already had a legendary career behind him, he was knighted by the queen, becoming Sir Paul McCartney. They also met in 1996, at the opening of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and in 2002, for the queen’s Golden Jubilee, during which McCartney performed alongside other international music stars.
Their last meeting took place in 2018, when McCartney was awarded the title of Companion of Honour. After the queen’s death, the singer recounted the episode on his official website, recalling that he had met her eight or nine times and had been struck each time by the combination of her great sense of humor and her extraordinary composure. “Our last meeting came in 2018. Because of my respect and love for the queen and her fabulous sense of humor, when I was given the Companion of Honour medal I shook her hand, leaned in, and said, ‘We have got to stop meeting like this,’ to which she giggled slightly and got on with the ceremony. I did wonder if I was a bit too cheeky after saying this, after all this was the queen, but I have a feeling she didn’t mind.”
Originally published in Vanity Fair France.
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