Pattie Boyd

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Boyd met George Harrison on 2 March 1964, when she was 19 (two weeks away from her 20th birthday), while working as a fashion model. She was in a relationship with photographer Eric Swayne at the time and initially declined Harrison's date proposal. Several days later, having ended that relationship, she accompanied Harrison to the Garrick Club, chaperoned by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. The couple became engaged on 25 December 1965 and married on 21 January 1966 at Epsom register office. In September and October 1966, after the Beatles' final concert tour, Boyd and Harrison spent six weeks in India as guests of Ravi Shankar. While in Bombay, as Harrison studied sitar, Boyd began learning to play the dilruba, a bow-played string instrument. Due to attention from fans and the press, they left the city with Shankar and stayed on houseboats on Dal Lake in Kashmir. Boyd divorced Harrison in 1977 and married mutual friend Eric Clapton in 1979; they divorced in 1989.

In Their Own Story

Boyd had her first encounter with LSD in early 1965 when the couple's dentist, John Riley, secretly laced his guests' coffee with the drug during a dinner party at his home. As she was getting ready to leave with Harrison and John and Cynthia Lennon, Riley told them he had spiked their drinks and tried to persuade them to stay. Outside, Boyd was in an agitated state from the drug and threatened to break a shop window, but Harrison pulled her away. Later, when Boyd and her group were in a lift on their way up to the Ad Lib Club, they mistakenly believed it was on fire. On 25 June 1967, Boyd was among the crowd of friends who participated in the Beatles' *Our World* broadcast of "All You Need Is Love". Having become a member of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in February 1967, she was keen to meet the movement's leader, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and suggested that she and Harrison attend his lecture.

Reader's Guide

Boyd began her fashion career in 1962, modelling in London and Paris. Among her regular assignments were jobs for the UK edition of *Vogue*, *Vanity Fair*, *Elle* in France, and *Honey*, as well as fashion spreads in *The Daily Telegraph* and *The Times*. She was photographed by David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, and appeared on the cover of British *Vogue*. In early 1964, Boyd appeared in a television advertising campaign for Smith's crisps, directed by Richard Lester. Lester then cast her as a schoolgirl in the Beatles' 1964 film *A Hard Day's Night*, where she met and befriended George Harrison. At the request of Gloria Stavers, Boyd began writing a column titled "Patti's Letter from London" for the American teen magazine *16*. In July 1968, she and her sister Jenny, also a model, opened a boutique in London's Chelsea Market named "Jennifer Juniper" after Donovan's song. Boyd first exhibited her photos of Harrison and Clapton at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day 2005, in a show titled *Through the Eye of a Muse*.

Did You Know?

• Boyd was born on 17 March 1944 in Taunton, Somerset, and lived in Nairobi from 1948 to 1953 after her father's discharge from the Royal Air Force.
• She achieved three GCE O level passes in 1961 and moved to London the same year, finding work as a trainee beautician at Elizabeth Arden's Bond Street salon at age 17.
• Boyd's modelling career skyrocketed after her romantic involvement with Harrison, leading to further assignments for *Vogue*, *Vanity Fair*, and *Tatler*.
• In 1998, Boyd co-founded SHARP (Self Help Addiction Recovery Program) with Barbara Bach, the second wife of former Beatle Ringo Starr.
• Boyd's sister Jenny managed the boutique 'Jennifer Juniper' while Boyd was the buyer, selling antiques and objets d'art.