Rivals’ Sarah Stratton Has Special Ties With “Beatles”: Exploring Emily Atack’s Relationship With Paul McCartney

After numerous small and secondary roles, Emily Atack is finally enjoying the mainstream spotlight with her recent venture, Rivals. The ensemble show is steadily gaining traction as more and more people appreciate its complex characters and interwoven plotlines. Atack stars as Sarah Stratton in the show, who is the wife of Paul Stratton.

However, Atack is no stranger to fame and popularity. The actress has ties to huge celebrities who are widely known names in the industry. Here’s a look at her work and the surprising connection to Beatles singer Sir Paul McCartney.

Emily Atack has famous parents

Emily Atack has a star-studded family. Born to Keith Atack and Kate Robbins, the actress rose to fame with the comedy series The Inbetweeners. Keith was a singer and bass player for a band named Child.

He also toured after recording songs for a movie called 16 Years of Alcohol. Robbins, on the other hand, is also an actress best known in the 1980s and she sang as well.

How are Emily Atack and Paul McCartney related?

We truly live in a very small world where people can know one another through friends and family. Atack’s mother Kate Robbins is related to Sir Paul McCartney since her mother was McCartney’s first cousin. Atack and McCartney are first cousins twice removed in their family tree. That’s not all, Atack fondly remembers her cousin Grandpa with whom she spent some time in her childhood. She reminisced on a podcast,

Paul is my grandmother’s first cousin. At school, I went around saying he was my uncle, as it sounds a bit cooler. But I grew up with him in our lives. He’s a lovely man, a family man. He was very close to our grandmother, Betty, and our grandad, Mike. They were very helpful to him growing up.

While she never knew the extent of McCartney’s fame when she was just a child, it dawned on her as she grew up that she was a part of something big.

Teenage Paul McCartney wrote a letter to Emily Atack’s Grandfather

In the documentary series by BBC, Who Do You Think You Are?, Atack and her mother witnessed a blast from the past as they came across a letter written by none other than the Beatles singer. As per Mirror, he was in his late teen years during that time and wrote the letter to Atack’s grandfather, detailing the newfound band and their musical escapades.

The episode features the mother-daughter duo diving into their family history and learning how entertainment and music have been in their veins all along. The letter further detailed McCartney’s request to get a job so that they could make a living between shows. Surprisingly, the letter was also signed by Beatles bandmate John Lennon.

Taking the family legacy forward

After her parents and relatives did their part for the entertainment industry, Atack is taking the baton ahead with her work. The series Rivals is already gaining a lot of attention, especially because of its unique story and talented star cast. Talking about her character Sarah Stratton in the show, Atack told Radio Times,

To write women in a flawed way like this, especially with Sarah Stratton, I think it’s a way more modern thing to do. It used to be that the women had to be a certain way and written a certain way, people didn’t dare to celebrate women like Sarah Stratton. But yeah, I think it’s really interesting, and it’s so fun to play a character like that. She uses her sexuality to get the things she wants in the beginning, and towards the end, you kind of understand why she feels like she has no choice but to do that. So, a character like Sarah, who could’ve so easily been written as unlikeable, hopefully, I’ve made her quite fun and funny.

Atack is starring alongside David Tennant, an icon in his own right. The actress is indeed learning from her ancestors and is unafraid of bringing a unique flair to her work.

Rivals is streaming on Disney+.