Paul McCartney’s Childhood Crush Had ‘Absolutely No Idea’ She Was the One That Got Away

Paul McCartney’s love life has been the source of public speculation for decades ever since his immense rise to fame with The Beatles in the 1960s. However, his pre-fame childhood crush has now been revealed.

The musician, 83, is about to release his first solo album in more than five years, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, in which he drew inspiration from his life growing up in Liverpool. This includes reflections on now-famous childhood friends like fellow band members George Harrison and John Lennon, as well as old crushes.

According to The Sun, one of the tracks on the album refers to a childhood crush that McCartney had on a neighbor growing up, who he thinks of as the one that got away. The outlet tracked her down and revealed in a Saturday, May 17 report that the mysterious woman from the album is Jasmine Howe, a mother of three who left the Liverpool area for Hertfordshire before retiring to New Forest in Hampshire.

Her family says Howe, now 83, remembers growing up in the neighborhood around McCartney, but had “absolutely no idea” about his infatuation with her.

“It’s a cute story, she lived nearby and knew who he was, but she never got close to him — meanwhile, he obviously felt very differently,” her family told the outlet.

“It’s an amazing story — a very long time ago now, but we’ve chatted as a family in the past about how Jasmine grew up close to Paul McCartney,” they continued. “She just knew him as one of the boys in the local area. It’s enough to give you goosebumps!”

The music icon lost his first wife, Linda McCartney, to cancer in 1998 at age 56. He went on to marry Heather Mills in 2002, but they divorced six years later. In 2011, he married his current wife, Nancy Shevell.