Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ at 50: Meet the Runaway Who Inspired ‘She’s Leaving Home’
It would be years before Coe learned that the Beatles were singing her story. “I first heard the song when it came out and I didn’t realize it was about me, but I remember thinking it could have been about me,” she tells Rolling Stone. “I found the song to be extremely sad. It obviously struck a chord somewhere. It wasn’t until later, when I was in my twenties, that my mother said, ‘You know, that song was about you!’ She had seen an interview with Paul on television and he said he’d based the song on this newspaper article. She put two and two together.”
From the article-
Dancing would become a major passion for the teen, but it often incurred the wrath of her parents. She was particularly at odds with her mother, who denied her dreams of attending drama school and pressured her into pursing dentistry. “I wanted excitement and affection,” says Coe. My mother wasn’t affectionate at all – she never kissed me.”