The Beatles biopics are incoming, and when I tell you there is going to be drama. Like, if you thought celebrities in this our year of the lord 2025 were messy, you are not prepared for George Harrison's infamously juicy love triangle with Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton (with appearances from Eric's girlfriend and Ringo Starr's wife. Let's dive in—for fan-casting and lore purposes, obviously.
Pattie Boyd: 1964 to 1977
Pattie and George met in 1964 during production of A Hard Day's Night. They immediately hit it off, got married (she wrote in her book "I was so happy I thought I might burst"), and then ended up breaking up in 1974 amid George cheating (we'll get to that in a moment).
Meanwhile, Pattie was busy falling in love with Eric Clapton—who happened to be one of George's best friends. Please be advised this was one of THE most famous love triangles in music history...Eric even wrote "Layla" about Pattie while he was trying to steal her away—before she'd left George.
Anyway, Pattie and George ended up officially divorcing in 1977, and she married Eric in 1979. George said of her leaving: "I was happy that she went off, because we’d finished together, and it made things easier for me." Mmkay!
Maureen Starkey: ~1974
George met Maureen through Ringo...due to the fact that she was Ringo's wife. Their affair was short lived, but was apparently (and understandably!) the last straw for Pattie, who said "She was the last person I would have expected to stab me in the back. But she did. I thought that there was no room for me, in this ludicrous situation we'd all found ourselves in. Everyone behaving badly. You know, truly it was a mess!"
Welp. Here's a casual photo of Maureen and Ringo with George and Pattie—with Eric Clapton behind them!
Lory Del Santo
To make matters even more messy, Lory was Eric Clapton's ex. And apparently she and George had a three-day affair in Japan to get "revenge" on Pattie and Eric. "It was so private ...so special," she said of their time together. "He asked a lot of questions about Eric. He needed to. And I needed to talk...He was so sweet. He was very caring. It was not all about sex."
Olivia Arias
George met marketing exec Olivia Arias through work and they got married in 1978, going on to have a son named Dhani. The pair stayed together until George's death in 2001.
In an interview after his passing, Olivia said “I always say I wasn't a ‘Beatle wife.’ You might say an ex-Beatle wife. The thing is, when I met George, we sort of changed lanes. We went off and had a more normal, quiet life. It wasn't too quiet — we had fun! — but we were pretty private, and family really made him happy."
