I GET BY WITH THE HELP OF MY (LITTLE) FRIEND
Macca’s girls, inseparable as children – and still close today
EVEN for sisters, the bond between them has clearly always been close.
A picture from their childhood shows Mary and Stella McCartney squeezing inside a T-shirt together – and it seems that Paul McCartney’s daughters remain just as inseparable today.
Fashion designer Stella, 47, shared the T-shirt photograph on social media to mark Mary’s 50th birthday on Wednesday.
She wrote: ‘Celebrating this soulmate’s birth 50 years ago today. Mary, I love you more than you will ever know, more than I can even put into words. You’re with me every single day... A true stellar sister! x Stella.’
Another family photo she shared showed the young sisters wearing matching party dresses with large polka-dot bows in their hair. Mary replied to her sister’s Instagram post: ‘Love you so much little sis.’
This week Mary spoke to Thailand Tatler about growing up with famous parents – her
‘Mum and dad said we were going vegetarian’
mother was the ex-Beatle’s first wife Linda, a celebrated US photographer and vegetarian, who died from breast cancer in 1998.
As well as Mary and Stella, the McCartney household included their younger brother James, now a 41-year-old musician, and Heather, now 56, Linda’s daughter from a previous relationship.
Mary said: ‘When I was very young, my mum and dad sat us down and said to us, “We’ve made a decision that we’re going to become vegetarian. It’s your decision if you want to eat meat when you’re out, but we won’t be cooking meat in the house.”
‘My mum and dad would challenge each other and say, “What are we going to cook to fill that gap in the centre of the plate where the meat was?”’
Her mother developed such a repertoire of meat-free dishes that she established Linda McCartney Foods.
The brand continued after her death and still produces prepared vegetarian and vegan meals, including vegetarian sausages, burgers, meatballs and pies.
Mary, now a photographer and vegetarian cookery writer, said: ‘I’d worked with mum on her cookbooks and the food range from very early on. When she was writing her cookbooks I’d help edit them; I’d help test the recipes. And with the company... day to day, I had contact with the people working on it. I’d go to the factory and help with product development.’’
Stella also displays the influence of her upbringing in her role as a world-renowned designer, refusing to use fur or leather in her fashions. Paul has another daughter, Beatrice, 15, with his second wife, Heather Mills, 51, whom he divorced in 2008. He married Nancy Shevell, 59, in 2011.