Mary McCartney

About

From Wikipedia:

Mary Anna McCartney (formerly McCartney-Donald; born 28 August 1969) is a British photographer and Global Ambassador for Meat Free Monday and Green Monday. She is a daughter of musician and singer/songwriter Paul McCartney and photographer/musician Linda McCartney.

Early life

McCartney was born at Avenue Clinic in St John’s Wood, London on 28 August 1969 and named after her paternal grandmother, Mary McCartney. She is the first biological child of Paul McCartney of the Beatles and photographer Linda McCartney, and Linda’s second child. McCartney has an older half-sister, Heather McCartney, who was born Heather Louise See on 31 December 1962 to Linda and Joseph Melville See Jr. and adopted by Paul McCartney; a younger sister, Stella Nina McCartney, who was born on 13 September 1971; and a younger brother, James Louis McCartney, who was born on 12 September 1977. Mary McCartney’s mother Linda died from breast cancer in 1998. Her mother was Jewish and her father a Catholic. The McCartney siblings have a much younger half-sister, Beatrice Milly McCartney, born to her father and his second wife, Heather Mills, on 28 October 2003.

The most famous photograph of McCartney was taken by her mother; it is a photograph of her in 1970 as a baby, peeking out from inside her father’s jacket. The photograph is featured on the back cover of her father’s first solo album, McCartney.

After the birth of her sister Stella, McCartney’s parents formed the rock group Wings, with whom she and her siblings travelled the world until 1980. She grew up to be a vegetarian and is passionate about animal rights like the rest of her family.

Professional life

Mary McCartney is a professional British photographer. She was a photo editor for the music-book publisher Omnibus Press and in 1992 began taking photographs professionally, specializing in portrait photography. Because her paternal grandmother and her mother died of breast cancer, she began campaigning for breast cancer awareness in the United Kingdom. As a result, she became close friends with Cherie Blair, wife of former UK prime minister Tony Blair. This led to McCartney being chosen to take the first official photo of the prime minister and his wife with their fourth child, Leo, born 20 May 2000. Before this, the most well-known photos of hers were the last photographs taken of her mother, three weeks before her death. McCartney has taken portraits of Sam Taylor-Wood, Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, and of her sister Stella McCartney, who is a fashion designer.

Her first public photography exhibition was titled Off Pointe: A Photographic Study of The Royal Ballet After Hours. It includes offstage pictures of members of “The Royal Ballet, London” as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe, and was meant to showcase the difference between their grueling and often painful everyday lives and their storybook performances.

In 2001, McCartney produced the television documentary Wingspan, a story of her father’s post-Beatles musical career, focusing on her parents’ band Wings. She also interviews her father in the film.

In addition to her own photographic career, McCartney works with the family on her mother’s legacy and photographic archive housed at her father’s company, MPL Communications.

In 2012, McCartney collaborated with mobile phone manufacturer Vertu and children’s medical charity Smile Train. Traveling to Beijing and Volgograd, McCartney photographed four children who benefited from the rehabilitative surgery provided by Smile Train. The Constellation Smile project culminated in a photography exhibition in London on 12 June, followed by an international tour.

Outside of photography and filmmaking, McCartney is a committed vegetarian and co-founder of Meat Free Monday and an ambassador for Green Monday, both nonprofit organizations that campaign for sustainable, meat-free living across the globe. She is the author of two vegetarian cookbooks, a consultant for Linda McCartney Foods and a guest chef on the Food Network’s Kitchen App.

McCartney has written two vegetarian cookbooks, Food: Vegetarian Home Cooking (2012) and At My Table: Vegetarian Feasts for Family and Friends (2015).

Personal life

In 1995, McCartney’s brother James introduced her to director and television producer Alistair Donald. After dating for three years, they set a wedding date for May 1998. Upon the death of her mother, the wedding was postponed and McCartney and Alistair Donald were married on 26 September 1998. Mary Anna McCartney was then known as Mary Anna McCartney-Donald. On 3 April 1999, McCartney gave birth to her father’s first grandchild, Arthur Donald, who is the eldest of eight grandchildren. The Donalds’ second son, Elliot Donald, was born on 1 August 2002.

In April 2005, the couple announced their separation, but stated that it was only temporary and they wished to reconcile for the sake of their two sons. Although there was no public confirmation of a divorce, by 2007 she had returned to using her birth name professionally.

On 11 August 2008, McCartney gave birth to her third son, her first with director boyfriend Simon Aboud. On 12 June 2010, McCartney and Aboud were married in a private ceremony in London at the Marylebone Register Office, the same location where her parents were married in 1969. On 3 September 2011, McCartney gave birth to her second son with Aboud. […]

Beside her work on “Wingspan“, there’ve been few music-related collaborations between Mary McCartney and her father – she is credited to background vocals on a few songs.

Adventurous is how I’d describe my childhood. Our parents [Paul and Linda McCartney] toured the world, and we went, too. It was full of contrasts. In remote, quiet corners, we’d have nature-filled family time. Then we’d watch them fill stadiums, have our car chased and be stared at all the time. None of us kids found them particularly interesting. […]

My siblings are still my best friends. Stella and I in particular have a real closeness. We’re two years apart, and shared a bedroom growing up. On the road we only had each other for entertainment. We check in with each other every morning.

Mary McCartney – From The Guardian, December 31, 2022

Last updated on October 20, 2023