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Iris Violet Caldwell was the sister of the lead singer of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Alan Caldwell--the Beatles' rivals in the early days. The band was also home to drummer Ringo Starr before he joined the Beatles.

That wasn't Caldwell's only connection with the band. Her first boyfriend was George Harrison. Louise Harrison, George's sister, remembers at parties when they were teenagers, they would always be together-until he got into music.

Like Harrison, Caldwell was also involved in the performing arts as a trained dancer. She met Paul McCartney while performing at the Tower Ballroom in Liverpool. The Beatles and several other acts from Mersey were also performing on the bill. McCartney couldn't keep his eyes off her and they soon began dating.

Many people didn't know about Paul's romance with Iris, due to Brian Epstein's insistance that it remain secret. When McCartney wrote letters to Caldwell, he signed them "Paul McCoombie" just in case anyone read them. Some people believe that Brian Epstein was jealous of Paul's new found love because he was fond of McCartney himself (however, it is more widely believed that Epstein was more fond of John Lennon).

Caldwell and McCartney weren't allowed to go out together as a group because Epstein said they would lose their fans ( a similar situation John Lennon faced with his first wife, Cynthia). Nonetheless, Caldwell said McCartney was capable of displaying very real and tender emotions:

"Paul was very hard to dislike. Even in his teens there was something about him, a sort of charisma that used to strike people when they met him for the first time. And he always knew exactly where he was going, even though people often used to tell him they (The Beatles) would never make it"

Iris never dated anyone else during her relationship with Paul, but she does suspect that he did. She used to suggest that he go out with other people. She never saw him with another girl, although she was certain there were. When the Beatles were on there way to the top, Paul came back from London to visit Iris. He said he had met Jane Asher. Iris decided it was time to end their relationship, and they are still good friends. Iris married a singer, Shane Fenton in 1964. He is better known as Alvin Stardust. They went on tour together as a double act. They divorced a few years later.

In the 1970s, Caldwell faced family tragedy. In the early part of the decade, Caldwell's father, Ernie, died. Both her mother, Violet, and brother Alan (or Rory, as he was commonly known) were deeply distressed by this. The death of Ernie Caldwell, along with other issues that were known only to mother and son, led to their eventual suicides in

Caldwell remarried in 1983, but not much else is known about her today.

Inspirations

• "She Loves You"-Caldwell claims she inspired the song.
• "I Saw Her Standing There"-Caldwell was 17 when the song was written. "How could I dance with another?" might refer to the fact that Caldwell was a dancer.
• "Yesterday"-some claim that, although written several years after their breakup, "Yesterday" was dedicated to Iris Caldwell on the show "Blackpool Night Out". Her mother, Violet, told McCartney that her daughter didn't want to speak to him again because he "didn't have any feelings".

Webmaster's note: The Iris Caldwell biography was written with information complied by: The Beatles' authorized biography, press interviews and authorized and unauthorized biographies of Paul McCartney and the Beatles. This page is in no way associated with Ms. Caldwell, her colleagues, friends, family, and/or business associates.