Biography
She is the daughter of dry-cleaner Esiquiel Arias and his wife Mary Louise, who worked as a seamstress. She has brothers named Ron and Gilbert and sisters named Chris and Linda. Olivia attended Hawthorne High School in Southern California and graduated in 1965. She later worked as a secretary at A&M Records, where George Harrison happened to hold a recording contract. They were married in a private ceremony in 1978 at the Henley-on-Thames Register Office in England. Her parents attended; Harrison's brothers at his home Friar Park were not invited. Olivia attended Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach's wedding in 1981 without her wedding ring, giving rise to mistaken speculation that her marriage to Harrison was a hoax. Harrison always referred to her by her maiden name, Arias, on all his original albums and even named her "my wife Arias" in a Musician Magazine article, circa 1991.
In 1999, Olivia saved her husband's life when an intruder in the Harrison home attacked him. A mentally ill man, 36-year-old Michael Abram, had broken in, believing that George was possessed by the devil. Olivia fended off Harrison's assailant nearly single-handedly, after George had been stabbed repeatedly. She subdued him by using a fireplace poker and a lamp to bludgeon him. Harrison received a fax from his close friend Tom Petty that read: "Aren't you glad you married a Mexican girl?"
Read more about this topic: Olivia Harrison
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