Pattie Boyd - George Harrison

George Harrison

Boyd, who was nearly twenty years old in 1964, met Harrison during the filming of A Hard Day's Night, in which she was cast by Lester as a schoolgirl fan. Her only line in the film was asking "Prisoners?", but was later seen during the filming of "I Should Have Known Better". She was then "semi-engaged" to a photographer, Eric Swayne, whom she had dated for about a year, and out of loyalty declined Harrison's first invitation for a date. According to Boyd, one of the first things Harrison said to her on the film set was, "Will you marry me? Well, if you won't marry me, will you have dinner with me tonight?" Several days later, when Boyd was recalled for another day's work on the film, Harrison asked her out again and she accepted, having ended her relationship with Swayne. Their first date was at the Garrick Club (a private gentlemen's club), in Covent Garden, in the company of Brian Epstein, who managed Harrison and the other Beatles.

Boyd and Harrison, along with John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon, had their first encounter with LSD in early 1965. A dentist, John Riley—the son of a London police officer—along with his girlfriend, Cyndy Bury, secretly laced their coffee with the drug after a dinner party at his home. As they were getting ready to leave, Riley told them of his actions and fervently tried, but failed, to stop them. Boyd, undergoing the initial effects of the drug and in an agitated state, threatened to break a store window until Harrison dragged her away. The two couples eventually found themselves in a lift on their way up to the Ad Lib club (above the former Prince Charles Theatre at 7 Leicester Place), believing the lift was on fire.

Later that year, Boyd moved into Kinfauns with Harrison. Harrison and Boyd were engaged on 25 December 1965,, but before their wedding, Harrison said he would have to talk to Epstein, to make sure no tours had been planned. They were married on 21 January 1966, in a ceremony at the then-Registry Office, Upper High Street, in Esher, Surrey, with Paul McCartney (as Best man) and Epstein (sharing Best man duties with McCartney), in attendance. John Lennon and Ringo Starr had gone on holiday abroad with their wives, which distracted journalists from finding out about the wedding. Boyd and Harrison later went on their honeymoon (accompanied by Epstein), staying at the Hotel Cap Estel, near Èze, in the south of France.

While Lennon was in Spain filming How I Won the War in September 1966, Harrison and Boyd flew to Bombay as guests of sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, and returned to London on 23 October 1966. Boyd attended the Our World broadcast of "All You Need Is Love", in June 1967. Through her interest in Eastern mysticism and her membership in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, she inspired all four Beatles to meet the Indian mystic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London on 24 August 1967, which resulted in a visit to a seminar in Bangor, the following day. Boyd accompanied Harrison, with the other Beatles, on their visit to the Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh, India, in February 1968. In March 1970, The Harrisons moved from Kinfauns to Friar Park; a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion, in Henley-on-Thames.

Lennon and Mick Jagger were also said to have been attracted to Boyd, with Jagger admitting to his then-girlfriend, Bebe Buell, in the 1980s, that he had failed to seduce Boyd after trying for years. As her marriage to Harrison began to fail, Boyd had an affair with Ronnie Wood in 1973. According to Boyd, Harrison's increasing religious explorations, work ethic and personality changes caused the couple to split up in June 1974. According to Boyd, Harrison's songs, "I Need You", and "Something" were written for her, although Harrison said that he was thinking about a song for Ray Charles, and not Boyd.