Melanie at 17 in the picture that made the front pages in 1967 and inspired the Beatles
Melanie's first moment of fame, receiving a prize from Paul McCartney for miming to Brenda Lee on Ready Steady Go! in 1963
In a fit of what seemed to be adolescent pique, Melanie Coe, aged 17, ran away from home in 1967 - and became part of pop music legend.
It was her story of sneaking out of her parents' comfortable North London home, which made front page news in those days, that inspired Paul McCartney and John Lennon to write one of their most beautiful ballads - She's Leaving Home...
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more...
Four decades on, Melanie, now 58, is on the move again, and this time it's not by choice.
Caught up in Spain's complex rural planning laws, she has been forced to demolish her home that was built illegally on protected parkland.
"I've always lived life to the hilt. I have never played safe," says Melanie. "But having to demolish my house is the most stressful thing I've ever known."
At one point she faced a £140,000 fine, at another an 18-month prison sentence, experiences she has put to use by becoming an expert on planning in Spain and setting up her own estate agency.
There have been a fair number of ups and downs in the life of Melanie Coe.
When she ran away from home in February 1967, Melanie was pregnant and feared a beating from her mother, a successful hairdresser in the East End, whose clientele included the mother of Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
In the Beatles song, Melanie leaves a note for her parents as she steals away in the early hours and meets "a man from the motor trade".
In reality, she left in the afternoon when her parents were out and went off not with the father of her unborn child but with a croupier.
They spent a week together in Bayswater before her parents found her and took her back to the family's three-bedroom home in Stamford Hill. Later, she had an abortion.
"As a 17-year-old I had everything money could buy - diamonds, furs, a car - but my father and mother never once told me they loved me," Melanie has said.
Amazingly, McCartney's reading of her escape in the newspapers was not the first time he had come across her.
"I first met Paul when I was 13 on the pop show Ready Steady Go!
"He presented me with first prize for miming to Brenda Lee's Let's Jump The Broomstick, which meant I danced on the show for a year," says Melanie.
"We had spent a long day in the studio filming. John Lennon was aloof and unapproachable, Paul shook our hands but Ringo and George were sweethearts, chatting to us all day.
"Something probably clicked in Paul's mind when he read the story about me running away from home three years later, as it was pretty unusual back then."
A year after the song, Melanie was off again, marrying a Spaniard-with a lavish reception at the Dorchester hotel in London.
The newlyweds moved to the Bahamas but split 12 months later and Melanie headed for Los Angeles to pursue a dancing and acting career. She even dated actor Burt Ward, who played Robin in the Batman TV series.
"I've always been starstruck and followed my heart," says Melanie, who returned from America in 1981 to look after her dying mother.
Shortly afterwards she met Anthony Sharman, now 53, the man she has been with ever since and who helps run the estate agency with her. Together they have two children, Tabitha and Max, now 20 and 19.
__________________
"Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?" -The 9th Doctor, DOCTOR WHO episode "World War Three"
Great to see the people who inspired some of the world's best music!
Yes it is, I agree.
Plus I also love the fun, useless pieces of Pop trivia.
I read that she used to date the actor, Bert Ward, that played Robin in the old Batman series.
Think that would ever come up in Trivial Pursuit?
__________________ When you find yourself in the thick of it,
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly Girl.
Melanie at 17 in the picture that made the front pages in 1967 and inspired the Beatles
So, that's the skinny on that.
__________________
...who shall remain norman...'Stob shouting those animoles.' Hide your head in the sand little girl catch you with another man
That's the end'a little girl
John Lennon
The costs of running our database and discussion forum are steadily rising. Any help we receive is greatly appreciated. Click HERE for more information about donating to BeatleLinks.
She's leaving home (again) ... The woman who inspired a Beatles classic has had to qu
When you find yourself in the thick of it,
Hide your head in the sand little girl 
Linear Mode
