Mary Anna McCartney (born 28 August 1969) is an English photographer, documentary filmmaker, plant-based and vegetarian cookbook author, and activist. She is the Global Ambassador for Meat Free Monday.

Early life

Mary Anna McCartney was born at Avenue Clinic in the St John's Wood area of London on 28 August 1969, the daughter of American photographer Linda Eastman (1941–1998) and English musician Paul McCartney (born 1942). She is the younger maternal half-sister of Heather McCartney (born 1962), the older sister of Stella McCartney (born 1971) and James McCartney (born 1977), and the older paternal half-sister of Beatrice McCartney (born 2003). All of the children in her family were raised as vegetarians (both of her parents were notable vegetarian activists), and in 2009, McCartney (along with Paul and Stella) launched Meat-free Mondays in the United Kingdom.

Career

Photography and film

In 2015, McCartney was chosen to photograph Queen Elizabeth II as part of a campaign to celebrate the "longest-reigning British monarch in more than 1,000 years". It was announced in January 2021 that McCartney would direct a documentary about Abbey Road Studios. She said, "Some of my earliest memories as a young child come from time spent at Abbey Road [...] I've long wanted to tell the story of this historic place." As well as her father Paul McCartney, the documentary would feature interviews with Jimmy Page, Kate Bush, Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Pink Floyd, John Williams, Celeste, Elton John, Giles Martin, and Shirley Bassey. McCartney said, "What I wanted from the interviews was to drill down into how those musicians really feel about Abbey Road. 'Do you really care about Abbey Road? It's a building and you recorded here, but whatever. Do you really care?' And I think from the interviews, you can really see they are thinking fondly about it." The documentary, If These Walls Could Sing, was created as the centrepiece of Abbey Road Studios' 90th anniversary celebrations in November 2022.

Cooking

Cookbooks

McCartney has written two vegetarian cookbooks, Food: Vegetarian Home Cooking (2012) and At My Table: Vegetarian Feasts for Family and Friends (2015). In 2023, she published the plant-based cookbook Feeding Creativity: A Cookbook for Friends and Family that features 60 recipes created for celebrities. In 2021, Mary, Paul, and Stella turned 90 of Linda's vegetarian recipes into the plant-based cookbook Linda McCartney's Family Kitchen: Over 90 Plant-Based Recipes to Save the Planet and Nourish the Soul. Linda McCartney's Family Kitchen was nominated for an IVFF award in 2021.

Cooking show

McCartney launched Season 1 of the Discovery+/Food Network plant-based cooking show, Mary McCartney Serves It Up, in February 2021, Season 2 in November 2021, and Season three in November 2022. The show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 2022.

Personal life

McCartney married Alistair Donald on 26 September 1998, and they had two sons together before divorcing in 2007. She married Simon Aboud in 2010. They have two sons together.

Nominations and awards

Daytime Emmy Awards

Publications

Cookbooks

Photography

Photography exhibitions

Films