She’s leaving home (again) … The woman who inspired a Beatles classic has had to quit the Spanish house she built illegally
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.
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.
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