Republican candidate says it's 'surreal' his ex-wife went on to marry a member of The Beatles

Bruce Blakeman in 2006 with his then-wife Nancy Blakeman 

Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

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Republican candidate says it's 'surreal' his ex-wife went on to marry a member of The Beatles

The politician spoke about his connection with a Beatle during a recent appearance on the official podcast hosted by NY1 political anchor Errol Louis, You Decide with Errol Louis

By Hannah Furnell

Irish Star

18 Oct 2026

Bruce Blakeman's ex wife is married to Paul McCartney

(Image: Getty Images)

A Republican candidate has an unexpected connection with a Beatle.

During a recent appearance on NY1 political anchor Errol Louis' podcast, You Decide with Errol Louis, Bruce Blakeman, 71, said it's "surreal" that his ex-wife, Nancy Shevell, 66, went on to marry Paul McCartney. The 84-year-old former Beatle married the transportation executive in 2011 at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London, three years after she finalized her divorce from Blakeman following 23 years of marriage.

The GOP gubernatorial candidate, who is challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul for governor of New York and has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, had nothing but praise for McCartney, calling him a "nice guy" and good stepfather to his and Shevell's son, Arlen Blakeman. However, he admitted that they steer clear of politics whenever they meet.

"It's a little surrealistic that your ex-wife is married to a Beatle. I'm not going to lie," Blakeman told Louis. "Well, he's my son's stepfather, and he treats my son very nicely. He's a nice guy. Our politics are probably not the same. But we don't talk about politics."

Blakeman, who had an amicable divorce from Shevell, a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member, remarried to Nassau County Family Court Judge Segal Blakeman, whom he called a "great woman" and described as smart and beautiful.

"Look, I wish my wife well. We were married for 23 years. We had a wonderful child together," he added on the podcast.

Speaking about his current wife, Blakeman, whom the president has endorsed and dubbed "100% MAGA," said, "And she's given me an additional two kids. I have two stepchildren now and three grandchildren. So, life goes on."

McCartney is a climate change activist and founder of Meat Free Monday, a not-for-profit campaign he launched in June 2009 with his daughters Mary and Stella McCartney. The movement encourages people to skip meat and fish at least one day a week for environmental and health reasons.

Bruce Blakeman said it's surreal that his ex-wife, Nancy Shevell, went on to marry The Beatles' Paul McCartney

(Image: (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP))

While the initiative aims to lower greenhouse gas emissions, combat deforestation, and save water by reducing global animal agriculture, it also promotes plant-based eating as a simple, approachable way to improve personal health.

McCartney is a frequent critic of Trump. On March 28, he mocked the president's dance moves during a performance before a star-studded audience at the iconic Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. Earlier that day, protesters had flooded the streets as part of the No Kings movement opposing Trump.

In May, the singer-songwriter appeared on The Rest Is Entertainment, where he discussed fame and The Beatles' enduring legacy in the run-up to the May 29 release of his latest album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane.

The record draws heavily on nostalgic memories of his Liverpool childhood and pays tribute to beloved figures he has lost. Yet, while discussing the unifying power of tracks like Hey Jude on the podcast, McCartney found time to deliver some pointed remarks about Trump.

During the appearance, co-hosts Richard Osman and Marina Hyde posed audience questions to the music icon, among them how Beatles classics like Hey Jude continue to bring audiences together.

McCartney responded that the 1968 White Album track has the rare ability to unite even those on opposing sides of the political divide. He said, "And particularly these days - you do something like Hey Jude, and you see the whole audience singing together. In Trump's America, where Republicans and Democrats are at each other's throats - when we do that song, they're not."

Paul McCartney was a member of the British rock band The Beatles

(Image: Roger Viollet via Getty Images)

He added, "They're all loving it. And it's like, wow. Suddenly this room has forgotten all of that. We're not going to argue; we're just going to sing together. Those kinds of things, I think, are valuable."

His 2018 song Despite Repeated Warnings from the album Egypt Station drew inspiration from what he perceived as the president's dismissal of climate change concerns.

The music icon wrote in his 2021 book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, "We're faced with the political situation, particularly in the U.S., where a braggart has been in charge and seems quite unstable to say the least. He's shouting the loudest, but he's not necessarily the smartest."

He continued, "I often think, 'How can a person get away with some of the things he says?' But then, two days later, the news cycle will have brought us something else he's said, and then the thing we thought the person would never get away with has gone, and it's difficult to bring it back."

Paul and Nancy married in 2011

(Image: Getty Images for Robin Hood Foun)

In a 2018 BBC interview, McCartney elaborated, "[The song] basically says, 'Occasionally, we've got a mad captain sailing this boat we're all on, and he is just going to take us to the iceberg [despite] being warned it's not a cool idea.'"

When pressed to identify the song's inspiration, he responded candidly, "Well, I mean, obviously it's Trump. But I don't get too involved because there's plenty of them about. He's not the only one."

In 2017, he described the president's denial of human-driven climate change as "madness." Discussing the connection between food consumption and global warming at the time, McCartney stated, "[Vegetarianism] not the total solution, but it's part of the solution. A lot of people have been saying this for a long time but there's resistance."

He continued, "Particularly when you've got someone like Trump who says that [climate change] is just a hoax. A lot of people like myself think that's just madness, so it's maybe a good time now to try and focus people's attention and say, 'Look, forget about him. We can do something.'"