Paul McCartney Reveals a Sweet Gift He Once Gave Wife Linda That Was Inspired by Jackie Kennedy Rachel RaposasFri, May 29, 2026 at 10:58 PM UTC 0 Paul and Linda McCartney, and Jackie Kennedy.Credit: Rino Petrosino/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty; Bettmann Paul McCartney once gifted his late wife Linda a bracelet inspired by one Jackie Kennedy owned The couple married in 1969 and had three children, remaining together until Linda&x27;s death in 1998 McCartney previously described his first wife as a "freeing influence" on him Paul McCartney once gifted his late wife Linda McCartney a particularly...
Paul McCartney Reveals a Sweet Gift He Once Gave Wife Linda That Was Inspired by Jackie Kennedy
Rachel RaposasFri, May 29, 2026 at 10:58 PM UTC
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Paul and Linda McCartney, and Jackie Kennedy.
Credit: Rino Petrosino/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty; Bettmann -
Paul McCartney once gifted his late wife Linda a bracelet inspired by one Jackie Kennedy owned
The couple married in 1969 and had three children, remaining together until Linda's death in 1998
McCartney previously described his first wife as a "freeing influence" on him
Paul McCartney once gifted his late wife Linda McCartney a particularly meaningful piece of jewelry — and he got the idea from none other than Jackie Kennedy.
The legendary musician, 83, joined Amanda Dimoldenberg for an episode of Chicken Shop Date, during which the pair discovered they both have an affinity for lilies. The flowers are nice, McCartney said, but the word "lily" itself holds a special significance to him, as it recalls memories of a heartfelt gift to his first wife, Linda.
McCartney recalled a sweet gift idea he'd seen from another famous couple, Aristotle Onassis and his wife, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and decided to put his own spin on it, he said.
"I'd seen Aristotle Onassis gave his wives a bracelet," Paul detailed. "And so one of them was Jackie Onassis, and so it [spelled out] J-I-L-Y: 'Jackie, I love you.'"
"And so I suddenly thought, 'Perfect!' Get Linda one and it'll be L-I-L-Y, 'Linda, I love you,'" he continued. "Lily. It's the perfect name to do that with."
Linda and Paul McCartney.
Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty
McCartney and Linda, who he described as his "lovely girl," tied the knot in 1969, not long before McCartney officially left the Beatles the following year. The couple welcomed three children together — Mary, 56; Stella, 54; and James, 48 — and remained together until 1998, upon Linda's death from breast cancer at age 56. McCartney also adopted Heather, Linda's daughter from a previous marriage.
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McCartney recently reflected on Linda's impact on him in a new installment of Words + Music with Audible, an expansion of his documentary Man on the Run. When he and Linda first met, she was like a "freeing influence" on him, he said.
“She had grown up in a posh bit of New York. She was on track to become the sort of company wife. But she didn't like that. She liked rock ‘n' roll,” McCartney said. “And she would do things like sneak out of the house late at night and drive into New York with a boyfriend. So there was a lot of freedom in her thinking. So I think that really was good for me.”
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She also encouraged McCartney "not to be too uptight," he said, and taught him a phrase that helped him relax.
"You'd be saying, ‘Oh, I'd love to do so and so but I can't.' And she'd say, ‘It's allowed.' It's like all the weight just went off,” McCartney recalled of Linda. “ ‘It's allowed.' Yeah, of course it is!”
McCartney's new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is now available.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: May 29, 2026 at 07:36PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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