A Pop Culture Icon
- The late Linda McCartney, artist, activist, and wife of The Beatles legend Paul McCartney, died 23 years ago at age 56 from breast cancer on April 17, 1998.
- Paul, who also lost his mother to breast cancer, famously said that he cried for a year when he lost his love; he and their daughters are keeping her memory alive by publishing a cookbook of her recipes.
- A cancer survivor tells us that telling your family can be the hardest part of a diagnosis.
"I cried a lot. It was almost embarrassing except it seemed the only thing to do," Paul, who also lost his mother to breast cancer, said in a BBC interview.
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Linda had written a number of cookbooks and was very passionate about healthy eating. Keeping her legacy live in that way is so sweet and inspiring.
"Years ago, before anyone had woken up to the idea of environmental and health and animal welfare issues, Linda was blazing the trail with vegetarianism, telling people about it and promoting it," the Liverpool-born rocker wrote in an Instagram post with two of his girls, designer Stella, 49, and photographer Mary, 51. "In the book there are family photographs and stories from those days, and of course lots of great, beautiful tasting healthy recipes."
Paul and Linda also share a son, musician James, 43, and have another daughter, artist Heather McCartney, 58, from Linda's previous marriage who Paul adopted. The icon had a fifth child with ex-wife Heather Mills, daughter Beatrice, 17. McCartney is currently married to Nancy Shevell, a 61-year-old American businesswoman.
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Paul and Linda's Story
Linda McCartney died from breast cancer on April 17, 1998. She and Paul got married in March 1969 in London. They worked together musically, and released the album Ram together in 1971, forming the band Wings later that year. They were nominated for an Oscar for their song Live And Let Die, the 1973 Bond film theme song.
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McCartney recalls memories of his wife as a "trailblazing photographer" who had a deep love for Scotland's outdoor beauty. Linda was also the first woman to have a rock photography credit on the cover of Rolling Stone with her 1968 portrait of Eric Clapton for the magazine; she snapped the Manhattan music scene of the 1960s.
Linda’s Early Family Tragedy
Linda McCartney suffered from an unimaginable tragedy in her teens when she lost her mother in a commercial plane crash. As a result, she was scared of flying, and was quoted saying how much she hates traveling in planes. “Death is so unexpected. I would actually rather stay at home and not go anywhere.”
She was born into a wealthy family in Scarsdale, New York where she grew up and went to college at the University of Arizona as an art history major.
Linda's Breast Cancer Battle
Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, and at the time of diagnosis it had metastasized, or spread.
She had treatment after first getting diagnosed and it had appeared to have gone well, according to a family spokesperson at the time of her death via Variety magazine. "But unfortunately in March it was found that it had gone to her liver."
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Two days prior to her death, Linda was out in nature riding horses with her love in Santa Barbara, a picture-perfect image to hold on to for her family.
"The blessing was that the end came quickly and she didn't suffer," the spokesperson said. Paul McCartney asked that instead of flowers, people could honor Linda with a donation to cancer research or animal welfare charities or simply "go veggie." Linda McCartney even had her own line of vegetarian foods.
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