Sir Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda were married for nearly three decades, remaining together until her tragic death in 1998.
And now, intimate photographs taken by the American photographer have given a rare insight into the couple’s private world.
The images include touching family portraits, such as a black-and-white photograph of Sir Paul with children Stella and James while on their farm in Scotland in 1982.
Another candid shot from 1970 shows a beaming Sir Paul posing with daughter Mary as a baby, with her head poking out beneath his shearing coat.
Sir Paul, 75, has gifted more than 60 photographs taken by his first wife to the Victoria & Albert museum in London, to allow members of the public to appreciate her work.
Intimate photographs taken by Sir McCartney’s late wife Linda (right, in a portrait from 1969) have been gifted by the Beatles star to the Victoria & Albert museum. They include this portrait of Sir Paul and daughter Mary from 1970 (left)
The images include intimate family shots, including this picture of Paul with children Stella and James in Scotland in 1982
Other shots include striking black-and-white shots of the couple’s daughters Stella and Mary, both taken in 1994.
As well as intimate family portraits, the portraits include rare photographs taken by Linda of The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
Linda, who was born in New York, became a professional photographer in the mid-1960s.
The mother-of-four, who married Sir Paul in 1969, sadly died in 1998 from cancer, at the age of just 56.
The images include this striking portrait of Sir Paul and Linda’s fashion designer daughter Stella, taken in Arizona in 1994 (left), and a picture of their daughter Mary, pictured right in 1994
The collection includes this photograph of the Beatles at the launch of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967
Linda was voted US Female Photographer of the Year in 1967 and was the first female photographer to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone a year later.
The V&A’s senior curator of photographs, Martin Barnes, said Sir Paul wanted to make some of his first wife’s pictures ‘more accessible to the public’, praising the ‘incredibly generous gift’,
‘Placing them in a freely accessible collection like the V&A enables that to happen and allows the work of Linda McCartney to be seen within a much broader context, of a wide history of photography, rather than isolated in that kind of story of rock and pop and the McCartney story,’ he said.
He said: ‘When you look at a whole range of photographs she keeps experimenting with different styles, different camera types, different printing types.
Another picture gifted to the V&A is this Jimi Hendrix was captured by Linda in 1968 in this black and white photograph
This untitled polaroid taken by Linda, who died in 1998 from cancer, has also been donated to the Victoria & Albert museum
‘She’s very interested in unguarded moments and intimate moments, unstaged moments, with her family.
‘But she brings that approach to the world of celebrity and rock and pop as well.
‘She had a real eye for a moment. She stepped back a little bit more from the staging. She was able to capture things that felt more honest and more real.’
Asked whether she had been underrated because of her husband’s fame, he said it is ‘quite hard to look at the pictures without the name in mind’.
Sir Paul McCartney and first wife Linda’s 30-year-long marriage
Sir Paul McCartney first met American photographer Linda Eastman in a club in London in 1967, when the Beatle was still with actress girlfriend Jane Asher.
He and Linda met again the following year in New York, after his brief engagement with Jane had been broken off.
The pair clearly hit it off, with the couple marrying in March 1989 at Marylebone registry office in London, followed by a blessing at St John’s Wood Church.
Linda’s daughter Heather, from her first marriage to Melville See, was adopted by Paul.
Sir Paul McCartney and his first wife Linda (left, on their wedding day in 1969, and right in the same year) stayed married until the photographer’s death in 1998
Paul and Linda went on to have three other children together: photographer Mary, born in August 1989, fashion designer Stella, born in 1971, and musician James, who was born in 1977.
Following the split of The Beatles in 1970, the couple formed the band Wings in 1971, with Linda on keyboards. She continued touring with Paul’s band until 1993.
Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, dying in 1998 at the age of just 56.
Writing about his wife in the Sunday Times in 2008, Sir Paul said: ‘Linda was very down to earth. She taught me to relax.
‘Her priorities were private rather than public. She didn’t go on television to ingratiate herself. She was just very funny, very smart and very talented.’
Sir Paul went on to marry Heather Mills in 2002, with the couple divorcing in 2008. He is now married to New Jersey-born wife Nancy Shevell.
A selection of the pictures will go on display at the V&A’s new Photography Centre, which opens in October.
The new centre will also feature the world’s first photographic experiments, pictures by 20th century greats Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen and newly commissioned works by Thomas Ruff.
The announcement today comes as Sir Paul and his third wife Nancy Shevell, 58, were spotted heading to the gym in north London today.
The Beatles star looked in high spirits as he and his New Jersey-born wife walked arm-in-arm in the sunshine. The couple married in 2011.
It comes as Sir Paul McCartney and his third wife Nancy Shevell, 58, were spotted in north London today as they paid a visit to a north London fitness studio
The couple, dressed in matching quilted jackets, were seen walking arm in arm ahead of their workout this morning
Sir Paul was in characteristically high spirits while strolling alongside his American wife, who he married in 2011