Want to read our hottest showbiz scoops for free? UK readers can claim three months of DM+ on us when you sign up to Katie Hind's Spotlight newsletter HERE Have YOU got a story? Email tips@dailymail.co.uk See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy LILY JOBSON, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER Published: 19:46 BST, 28 May 2026 | Updated: 19:49 BST, 28 May 2026
Sir Paul McCartney enjoyed vegan nuggets and chips on this week's episode of Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg.The Beatles legend, 83, has been a dedicated vegetarian for 51 years after adopting the lifestyle in 1975.Amelia made sure vegan nuggets were on the menu as she welcomed the musician on her show for the first time.'Money can’t buy me love…but it can buy me vegan nuggets and chips ! my date with @paulmccartney is out FRIDAY ❤️ ', she teased.Paul became a vegetarian alongside his late wife Linda McCartney after he was eating lamb chops while watching sheep play outside their farm window.'We were saying how cute and beautiful they were, then we looked at our plates. We were eating leg of lamb', he wrote in his Weekend Magazine column. 'We were eating one of those little things running around happily outside. That was the turning point for us and that’s how it all started. Sir Paul McCartney enjoyed vegan nuggets and chips on this week's episode of Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg The Beatles legend, 83, has been a dedicated vegetarian for 51 years after adopting the lifestyle in 1975'For Linda, being vegetarian was first and foremost an act of kindness and compassion – it was about the animals. 'Any animal we saw, she would love – even a creepy little frog. In fact, one of the things we always shared was a huge passion for nature.'Our children were all quite young at the time, but we sat them down and talked about it. 'Our daughter Mary remembers Linda and I saying that we’d decided not to eat meat because we didn’t want anything to suffer to be on our plate.'We told the kids that they didn’t have to become vegetarian too, but we wouldn’t be cooking meat at home any more. It was fine – there wasn’t any resentment.'No one found it difficult. There was a near glitch a while later when we were on holiday in the Caribbean and we went to a barbecue.'The kids were saying, ‘Daddy, there’s chicken. Can we have chicken?’ And we said, ‘Yeah, try it. But remember it’s those birds we have in the yard at home.’'They ate some chicken and didn’t like it. That was a blessing. And to this day, all the children – and their children – are vegetarian.'Linda, who died of breast cancer in 1998, was a vocal vegetarian and launched her own best-selling chain of meat-free alternatives in 1991. Paul became a vegetarian alongside his late wife Linda McCartney after he was eating lamb chops while watching sheep play outside their farm window (pictured together) Pictured: A packet of Linda McCartney's vegetarian sausages Her business' right to continue describing its products as vegetarian burgers and sausages came under threat in 2025 over whether the use of the two words will be outlawed if a food is plant-based.Paul and other members of Linda's family at the time joined the campaign protesting against the move. He told The Sunday Times: 'To stipulate that burgers and sausages are "plant-based", "vegetarian" or "vegan" should be enough for sensible people to understand what they are eating. 'This also encourages attitudes essential to our health and that of the planet.'Sign up for our Spotlight newsletter, direct from our Showbiz expert Katie Hind - and we'll also send you an eye-opening exclusive article revealing the 20 rudest celebrities she's ever met. Get it HERE
