How many children do The Beatles have?

13 September 2024, 13:00

By Radio X

@RadioX

Two Beatle children - Stella McCartney and Zak Starkey - celebrate their birthdays on 13th September. Which Beatle was the first to have a child?

1. Heather McCartney (born 31st December 1962)

   

   Technically, Heather is the eldest Beatle child by four months, but Paul is not her biological father: she was born to Joseph See Jr and Linda Eastman in 1962, but her parents divorced after two years of marriage. McCartney adopted Heather after he married her mother in March 1969.

2. Julian Lennon (born 8th April 1963)

   

   John Lennon married Cynthia Powell on 23 August 1962, after discovering she was pregnant with their first child. When Lennon started a relationship with the Japanese artist Yoko Ono in 1968, the couple divorced. Julian Lennon was the first Beatle baby and went on to become a musician in his own right in the 1980s. His singles Too Late For Goodbyes and Saltwater both made Number 6 in the UK charts.

3. Kyoko Chan Cox (born 8th August 1963)

   

   Yoko Ono's daughter with her first husband Tony Cox was immortalised in the song Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow) and became John Lennon's step-daughter in 1969. When Cox and Ono divorced, Kyoko was taken by her father to live in a religious commune, but has seen been reconciled with her mother. Kyoko is now a teacher.

4. Zak Starkey (born 13th September 1965)

   

   Ringo Starr (formerly Richard Starkey) married Maureen Cox in February 1965 and their first son was born that September. Zak's father was Keith Moon and, as fate would have it, young Starkey has stood in for the late drummer in the current line-up of The Who. Ringo was not only the first Beatle to become a grandfather, he was the first of the Fab Four to become a great-grandfather when Zak's daughter Tatia gave birth to Stone Zakomo Low in August 2016. Zak is currently in the frame to become the drummer of one of his former employers - the newly-reunited Oasis.

5. Jason Starkey (born 19 August 1967)

   

   Ringo and Maureen's second son was born in the psychedelic summer of 1967. In fact, five days after Jason was born, Ringo and the other Beatles met the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for the first time and travelled to his summer school in Wales to study Transcendental Meditation that weekend. Jason Starkey has three children of his own.

6. Mary McCartney (born 28 August 1969)

   

   When Paul McCartney joined his bandmates on 8 August 1969 to take the photo that would form the photo of The Beatles' album Abbey Road, he was about to become a father for the first time. Mary Anna McCartney was born on 28 August and was the first child of Paul and Linda. Named after Paul's mother, who died in the Beatle's teenage years, Mary has since gone on to become a photographer like her mother.

7. Lee Starkey (born 11 November 1970)

   

   Ringo's only daughter was born after the Beatles officially disbanded. Lee has been a fashion designer in her time and together with former Kasabian and Beady Eye guitarist Jay Mahler they had triplets: two boys Smokey and Jakamo, and one girl, Ruby Tiger, born in 2009. Lee has thankfully survived two brain tumours: once in 1995 at the age of 24 and the second in 2001.

8. Stella McCartney (born 13 September 1971)

   

   Stella was Paul and Linda's second daughter has gone on to have a hugely successful career as a fashion designer. Like her parents, Stella is a strict vegetarian and animal rights campaigner and doesn't use animal products in her designs. Paul named his post-Beatles band Wings after Stella's difficult birth, during which her parents prayed that she would be delivered "on the wings of an angel'. She shares the same birthday as Ringo's son Zak, and her brother James's birthday is the day before hers!

9. Sean Lennon (born 9 October 1975)

   

   Yoko Ono tried to have a child with John Lennon for many years, but they were eventually successful six years after they married when Sean Taro Ono Lennon was born in 1975, on his father's 35th birthday. Like his half-brother Julian, Sean has also become a musician, performing solo and with the band Cibo Matto.

10. James McCartney (born 12 September 1977)

    

    Paul McCartney's only son is named after his dad (and James Paul McCartney was named after his own father, Jim). He's the only McCartney to have taken after his father and pursued a career in music, issuing two albums: Me in 2013 and The Blackberry Train in 2016. He's also appeared on a couple of his dad's records, including 1997's Flaming Pie and 2001's Driving Rain.

11. Dhani Harrison (born 1 August 1978)

    

    George Harrison didn't have any children with his first wife Patti Boyd, but had one son with his second wife, Olivia Arias. Dhani was born in August 1978 - and a month later, George and Olivia married in Henley-on-Thames. The younger Harrison joined his father for the former Beatle's final album before his death, Brainwashed, and has since forged a career in music himself. He was worked in two bands, Thenewno2 and Fistful Of Mercy, but issued his first solo album, In Parallel, in 2017.

12. Beatrice McCartney (born 28 October 2003)

    

    The youngest of this generation of Beatles children was Beatrice McCartney, who was born to Paul and his second wife Heather Mills in 2003. She was named after Heather Mills’ mother Beatrice and Paul McCartney’s aunt Milly. McCartney and Mills separated in 2006 after just four years of marriage and divorced two years later.