Pattie Boyd

At 80 years old, Pattie Boyd has this physical status:

Patricia Anne Boyd (born 17 March 1944) is an English model and photographer.

She was one of the country's top models during the 1960s and, with Jean Shrimpton, epitomized the British female "look" of the period.

In 1966, Boyd married George Harrison, who lived at the time of the Beatles' fame as well as sharing in their embrace of Indian spirituality.

In 1977, she divorced Harrison.

She married Harrison's uncle Eric Clapton in 1979 and the two couples divorced in 1989.

"If I Needed Someone," "Something" and "For You Blue," Boyd's "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight" were among Harrison's "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight." Boyd's autobiography Wonderful Today (named Wonderful Tonight in the United States) was released in August 2007.

Harrison and Clapton's photographs, titled Through the Eye of a Muse, have been seen in Dublin, Sydney, Toronto, Moscow, London, Almaty, Uppsala, and all over the United States.

Early life

Boyd was born in Taunton, Somerset, on March 17, 1944, the first child of Colin ("Jock") Boyd and Diana Frances Boyd (née Drysdale). The Boyds moved to West Lothian, Scotland, where her brother, Colin, was born in 1946. Jenny and her sister Jenny were born in 1947 in Guildford, Surrey. The Boyds lived in Nairobi from 1948 to 1953, following Jock's departure from the Royal Air Force. Paula, the boy's younger sister, was born in 1951 at a hospital in Nakuru, Kenya.

Boyd boarded at Nakuru School near Nairobi from the age of eight. She returned home after a half-term break and was stunned to learn that her parents had divorced. Diana and her younger brother, Bobbie Gaymer-Jones, moved to England in December 1953. Boyd had two half-brothers, David (b. ), during her mother's second marriage. (1954) and Robert ("Boo") b. b. (1955): Ancestry, 1955. Clare (1962–2018) and Julia (b. ), many years later, discover that she had two half-sisters during Jock's second marriage. 1964 (broadcasting).

The boy attended Hazeldean School in Putney for a short time, then the St Agnes and St Michael Convent Boarding School in East Grinstead, and St Martha's Convent in Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire. In 1961, she obtained three GCE O level passes. She came from London in 1962 and spent as a shampoo girl at Elizabeth Arden's salon in London. A client who worked with Honey magazine inspired her to begin modelling.

Personal life

When she first met Harrison on March 2, 1964, she was in a relationship with photographer Eric Swayne and hence turned down his initial date date request. Several days after ending Harrison's friendship with Swayne, she took him to the Garrick Club, where the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, chaperoned her. With the Beatles often off on concert tours, she and Harrison then saw each other as often as their professional commitments permitted. Harrison bought Kinfauns, a Surrey house, in July 1964 to escape central London's constant fascination, and Boyd soon moved into the house.

During a dinner party at his house, the boyd had her first encounter with LSD, when the couple's dentist, John Riley, mistakenly laced his guests' coffee with the drug during a dinner party. Riley, as she was getting ready to leave Harrison and John and Cynthia Lennon, spiked their drinks and begged them to stay. Boyd had been in a tumultuous state from the medication and threatened to break a store window, but Harrison managed to catch her away. As Boyd and her group arrived in a lift on their way up to the Ad Lib Club, they mistakenly thought it was on fire.

The couple married on December 25, 1965, and then married in Epsom's register office on January 21. Harrison emphasized the similarities of their marriage in his article "How a Beatle Lives" in the Evening Standard in March 1966, and praised Boyd for broadening his outlook. Boyd and Harrison stayed in India for six weeks as guests of Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar, between the Beatles' last concert tour tour and now. Boyd began learning to play the dilruba, a bow-played string instrument, while in Bombay, as Harrison's sitar studies continued under Shankar's tutelage. They left Shankar and remained on houseboats on Dal Lake in Kashmir due to the fan and the press's interest. Boyd and Harrison maintained their commitment to yoga and vegetarianism on their return to England, while Boyd received additional information on the dilruba from Shiv Dayal Batish.

Boyd was among the crowd of friends who watched "All You Need Is Love" on the Beatles' Our World broadcast on June 25, 1967. Boyd expressed her disinterest in Eastern mysticism, as well as her husband's. She had been keen to hear Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the movement's leader, and so she and Harrison were keen to attend his Transcendental Meditation lecture at the London Hilton on August 24. The following day, he and the other Beatles and their partners, who were fascinated with the Maharishi, Harrison, and Boyd, all traveled to a lecture in Bangor, Wales. In February 1968, Boyd and her sister Jenny followed Harrison on the Beatles' ride to the Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh, India. The four Beatles had a bond that neither she nor any other women could penetrate; she also said she wished that the band would use their fame and influence to advance a cause as Marlon Brando did. Boyd inspired several of Harrison's Beatles compositions, including "I Need You," "If I Wanted Someone," "Love You To," "Something" and "For You Blue." Boyd and Harrison were arrested in Kinfauns in March 1969 as part of the British authorities' tolerant attitude against the Beatles in the late 1960s.

Boyd moved from Harrison to Friar Park, a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames, a month before the Beatles' break up. Harrison's contribution to Indian spirituality, particularly the Hare Krishna movement, had begun to divide the couple by this time. They were also unsuccessful in starting a family, and Harrison did not consider adoption. Boyd began modelling in May 1971, defying Harrison's spiritual convictions. Harrison, Woods, had an affair with Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood in 1973, though Harrison romanced Wood's wife Krissie. Boyd said she regretted leaving Harrison, Texas, largely as a result of his repeated infidelities, culminating in his affair with Starr's wife Maurice, which Boyd described as "the final straw."

Boyd is the artist's "closest companion" and someone who shared in his "triumphs and tragedies," according to author Ian Inglis, who was writing about Harrison's 1973 film "So Sad." Inglis addresses the international Beatlemania phenomenon, the Beatles' departure from live performance, Epstein's death, the creation of Apple Corps, the Beatles' investigation of Indian spirituality, the Beatles' break-up, Harrison's rise as a songwriter and then as a solo artist, and his Bangladesh aid project. On June 9, 1977, the couple's divorce was finalized. Paddy Grafton-Green, the boy's solicitor, of the London firm Theodore Goddard, remarked on the sensitivity shown by each party towards the other, which he found particularly unusual in his case of high-stakes divorces. "I wish all divorces were well handled," he said.

Eric Clapton and George Harrison became close friends and began writing and recording music together in the late 1960s. At this moment, Clapton was in love with Boyd. Clapton briefly dated Boyd's sister Paula in an attempt to please his infatuation. His 1970 album with Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, was written to announce his Boyd's adoration for Boyd, particularly the hit song "Layla." Clapton borrowed inspiration from The Story of Layla and Majnun, a Persian writer by Nizami; the story about a man pushed to madness by his unattainable love in the seventh century. Clapton descended into heroin use and self-imposed exile for three years after Boyd's rejection of his advances in late 1970.

Clapton tried Boyd again after being cured of his heroin use in 1974. Hurt later remembered that Harrison and Clapton staged a guitar "duel" over Boyd at Friar Park; Hurt said it was "extraordinary." The air was electric. "No one dares say a word." Although Boyd supports this belief, Clapton denies it's importance. Boyd left Harrison on July 4th, 2007. She and Clapton were married in Tucson, Arizona, on March 27, 1979. They remained close friends with Harrison, who went back to call Clapton his "husband-in-law."

Boyd soon suffered within the marriage and went to binge drinking heavily, but her public image with Clapton was masked. He later admitted to raping and insulting her while they were married, but he was a "full" alcoholic. Clapton and Boyd tried unsuccessfully to have children, but they were met with miscarriages in 1984 and 1987.

Boyd left Clapton in 1987 and divorced him in 1989. Clapton's years of alcoholism, as well as his numerous affairs, including one with Italian actress Lory Del Santo, were among her reasons. In 1989, she was granted divorce on the grounds of "infidelity and unreasonable conduct." Clapton's pursuit of her when she was married to Harrison "had more to do" with the friendship's rivalry, according to her later, "Eric wanted what George had."

Rolling Stone called Boyd a "legendary rock muse" for her role in influencing Harrison and Clapton's music, while The New York Times' Alan Light described the Boyd-Clapton-Harrison love triangle as "one of rock'n'roll history's most mythical romantic entanglements." Mental Floss founder Roger Cormier has described her as "one of rock and roll's most popular muses." She was the inspiration for Clapton's "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight" in addition to "Layla." In reaction to her sadness at learning of Harrison's marriage to Olivia Arias in 1978, Boyd composed "The Shape You're In" referring to Boyd's alcohol use.

In 1991, Boyd met property developer Rod Weston. The couple married in a ceremony held at the Register Office in Chelsea Old Town Hall, London, on Sunday. "It's almost our silver anniversary, so we thought we'd better get to it," Weston was quoted as saying.

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Career

Boyd began her fashion career in 1962, appearing first in London and Paris. Among her regular duties at the time were jobs for the UK version of Vogue, Vanity Fair, Elle in France, and Honey, as well as fashion spreads in journals such as The Daily Telegraph and The Times. She was photographed by David Bailey, Terence Donovan, and Brian Duffy, among others, and appeared on British Vogue's front page. Some popular models of the day, such as Twiggy, based their modelling appearance on Boyd. In the description of journalist Tom Hibbert, Boyd, and Jean Shrimpton, they became "global celebrities" as the embodiment of the "British feminine 'look' – mini-skirt, long, straight hair, and wide-eyed loveliness. As a result of the worldwide success of the Beatles and other British Invasion musical performances from 1964 to 1975, this essay defined Western fashion for women. Boyd recalls being regarded as the muse to designer Ossie Clark, who used to say "Pattie" in his autobiography.

Boyd appeared in a Smith's crisps television commercial campaign in early 1964, directed by Richard Lester. In the Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night, Lester played her as a schoolgirl, where she met and befriended George Harrison, the group's lead guitarist. As a result of Boyd's subsequent romantic involvement with Harrison, her modelling career soared. She recalls that additional assignments for Vogue and Vanity Fair were the result, as well as jobs for Tatler (with photographer Jeanloup Sieff), television commercials for Smith's and L'Oréal's Dop shampoo brand, and advertisements on newspaper fashion pages.

Boyd and Harrison were among the top couples in London's Swing London period, when "actors, pop singers, hairdressers, and models" were among London's new "privileged class," according to a 1966 article in the Daily Express. Author Barry Miles later described her as "by far the most glamorous" of all the Beatles' wives and girlfriends, while journalist Shawn Levy later wrote that "sixties stardom was supposed to confer upon its chosen." "They want to look youthful, navely ignorant, rather than Marlene Dietrich," British fashion designer Mary Quant wrote in 1966, "and it takes more sophistication to achieve this appearance than those early would-be sophisticates ever imagined."

Boyd began writing "Patti's Letter from London" for the American teen magazine 16. "She reported on the most recent trends in Carnaby Street, informed readers as to what the Beatles and Stones were wearing at the time, and gave tips on how to turn dark and curly hair straight and blonde." However, Harrison, who was the object of ferociousness from the Beatles' female followers, begged to ensure their anonymity. She and her sister Jenny, who was also a model, opened a store in London's trendy Chelsea Market in July 1968. After Donovan's song of the same name, they named it "Jennifer Juniper." Jenny ran the store, which sold antiques and other objets d'art, while Boyd was the buyer.

Boyd says she had "virtually given up" modelling by the 1970s. She resumed her work at the time, promoting Ossie Clark's designs. Boyd then did a cover shoot in Milan for Italian Vogue with photographer Justin de Villeneuveneuve, and after that, she and Twiggy continued to work with Bailey on several British Vogue covers. Boyd and her siblings were photographed by Patrick Lichfield in another shoot for the latter magazine.

Boyd started photographing musicians and others in the 1960s and was a member of the Royal Photographic Society. In a 2008 interview, she said that she didn't feel "emotionally ready" to revisit the photographs until 2004. She also stated that her lack of professional experience reportedly contributed to a more personal and authentic tone in her work, since her subjects were changed in her organization.

In a show titled Through the Eye of a Muse, Boyd first displayed her photographs of Harrison and Clapton at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day 2005. During 2006 and 2008, the exhibition appeared in San Francisco and London, as well as in La Jolla, California. In 2008 and 2010, the Eye of a Muse was on view in Dublin and Toronto, as well as the Blender Gallery in Sydney and Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2010.

Yesterday and Today: On Santa Catalina Island, California, and the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC, in 2011, The Beatles and Eric Clapton were on display, as well as the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Following her release from Clapton in the late 1980s, Boyd became involved in charitable work. Barbara Bach, second wife of former Beatle Ringo Starr, co-founded SHARP (Self Help Addiction Recovery Program) in 1991.

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