Love, love me do
SHE'S the millionaire who has healed Paul McCartney after a disastrous marriage to Heather.
So does the ex-Beatle consider publicity-shy heiress Nancy Shevell as his new Linda?
To say that Nancy Shevell is unused to media exposure is not entirely true.
Four years ago, for example, she was the special guest on the American cable channel Fox News, on a programme called Your World. There was no A-list showbusiness glitz about the slot. The topic was the rising price of lorry transport into New York City in the wake of heightened security measures.
It’s no doubt a burning issue, especially if you happen to be vice-president of a company that proudly describes itself as the “largest privately owned less-than-truckload non-teamster carrier in the north-east” of the United States.
But discussing the nitty-gritty of background checks for lorry drivers and the soaring insurance costs of bringing freight into Manhattan was a far cry from last month’s press photocall outside a mansion in St John’s Wood, London, where the same Ms Shevell appeared in what some passers-by called a “Charles-and- Di-style walkabout” on the arm of Britain’s most eligible pensioner Sir Paul McCartney.
It may be too soon to dub Nancy the new Lady Macca-to-be. The 66-year-old ex-Beatle’s grown-up children Stella, Mary and James are said to be completely against their father marrying anyone, whomever she may be, for a long time, so harrowing was his £32million divorce from second wife Heather Mills.
She doesn't need his fortune, she has her own
Nevertheless, the 48-year-old American trucking executive, who is in the process of divorcing her husband, is now the open consort of a man so besotted he has just written a song about her.
Sir Paul was reportedly house-hunting last month in New York’s Upper East Side where he would be closer to Nancy, “looking at eight-figure apartments” according to a source.
This week the couple shared romantic kisses as they sailed off the coast of New York’s Long Island in a boat named after McCartney’s first wife Linda.
While Nancy is glamorous with an extraordinarily slim figure, it is clear that she is made of very different stuff from the previous partners who have been granted the honour of a McCartney ditty.
Fiancée Jane Asher (who inspired such Beatles tracks as And I Love Her and Here There And Everywhere) was an actress. First wife Linda (inspiration for the solo composition Maybe I’m Amazed) photographed rock stars.
Heather (the subject of a lesser-known song called Your Loving Flame) was a glamour model turned land mines campaigner.
By contrast, Nancy Shevell has a degree in business administration from Arizona State University, where she won a scholarship prize for excellence in transport. She is a senior executive of New England Motor Freight Inc, built up by her self-made millionaire father Myron (known as Mike), and is also vice-president of the Shevell Group of companies. The business as a whole is worth about £350million.
As well as being co-chairwoman of a family foundation that supports drugs-related projects, Nancy is also a board member of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Auth-ority, on which she chairs the capital construction, planning and real- estate committee.
She was appointed to that post by the Republican governor of New York State George Pataki who also appointed her husband, Bruce Blakeman, to the Port Authority of New York. In 1998 Blakeman, from whom she is now legally separated, ran for elected office as New York’s state comptroller on the Republican ticket.
It is a weighty, not-to-be-messed-with CV. But in media terms it is also a low-key professional history. Until her link with Sir Paul, whom she knew for several years before they started a romantic affair, Nancy’s main showbusiness connection was her kinship with the heavyweight US TV presenter Barbara Walters, who is her second cousin.
As for Sir Paul, he has not hitherto shown any strong interest in transport issues. The most notable form of transportation to have featured in his musical oeuvre is the Yellow Submarine.
Yet it was perhaps a new-found interest in land transport that saw him take Nancy on a camping pilgrimage along the remains of the legendary Route 66, which originally ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, in a 1989 green Ford Bronco truck this summer. He said it was the ambition of a lifetime.
They headed for California from Illinois, shoulder-to-shoulder all the way as they stopped to soak up Americana.
They paused at obscure tourist attractions, acting like regular visitors as they toured the Route 66 exhibit at the Joliet Area historical museum in Illinois and the Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City.
Vegetarian Sir Paul stifled his qualms when he and Nancy stayed in the Presidential Suite, decorated cattle-baron-style in all-leather, hide ’n’ horns at the Ambassador Hotel in Amarillo, Texas.
They stopped at a small museum in Vega, Texas, and melted into the crowd of 6,000 at the 87th Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial at Red Rock Park, New Mexico, to watch native dancing and singing.
Just outside Amarillo they visited the Cadillac Ranch: 10 giant cars buried nose-first in the earth; and toured an antique shop in Tucumcari, New Mexico, before a stop in Santa Fe high in the mountains of New Mexico.
Such an arduous trip with its long hours alone together on the open road might have spelled the end of many relationships but Sir Paul and Nancy seemed to grow closer with each passing day.
“They were clearly very much in love,” says one witness. “They were very sweet together.”
It is increasingly evident that Sir Paul seems to relish his girlfriend’s company whatever the surroundings. The first signs of their relationship came when they were photographed on a beach in Antigua last year.
This summer they holidayed together in France and were seen out in the Hamptons, the exclusive coastal enclave in New York State where Nancy has a £2million home. She accompanied him when he played a concert in Quebec in July and he has also asked her to join his world tour later this year.
A source close to McCartney was quoted as saying: “Paul is excited about going on tour. Initially he wanted to go it alone with just his band and road crew, with family flying out every now and again, but now he wants Nancy to be with him all the way.
He says he had the time of his life on the road trip with her. I think it really sealed things for him. He enjoys her company so much.”
Sir Paul has been described as looking like “the cat that got the cream” in the company of his new love. This may not be the first time he has fallen head over heels but the difference between Nancy and Heather is that in this case his family and friends seem to like her, too.
While McCartney’s children are not known to suffer fools gladly and might have given any woman taking their late mother’s place a tough time, their relationship with Heather was ice-cold.
The former topless model did not endear herself to Sir Paul’s then brood of four – three of his own children and an adopted daughter from Linda’s first marriage – when she boasted in public about their active sex life.
Permafrost then set in when she chose not to get married in one of Stella’s wedding frocks. A vicious war of words ensued which has been well documented.
What a relief it must be, then, that Sir Paul’s new love is rich in her own right. As one friend of Sir Paul’s has said of Nancy: “She’s classy, great company and, most importantly, she’s not interested in getting her hands on any of his fortune – she’s got her own.”
Nancy is also closer to him in age and there is no chance of him starting yet another family with her. So far, the only possible strife on the horizon is Nancy’s large collection of £3,000 crocodile handbags, which may not go down well with an ardent veggie.
But no doubt McCartney himself, who once said that eating meat was “like Hitler killing the Jews”, is already persuading her to replace them with Stella’s high-grade plastic clutch-purses.
For Nancy herself, Heather must be a great act to follow because the only way is up.
So far, the romance has been on the go for a year but the fact that it is now so comprehensively in the open is a sure sign it is going from strength to strength.
Presumably Nancy cannot devote herself entirely to Sir Paul on his forthcoming tour. After all, she has a freight company and a city transport authority to run and her board membership of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is not due to expire until 2011.
Yet the relationship shows every sign of keeping on trucking for the foreseeable future.
