Pattie Boyd — first wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton — is 79 years old today.
A model, photographer and author from the United Kingdom, in August, 2007, Boyd published her autobiography, Wonderful Tonight, which debuted at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.
Her photographs of Harrison and Clapton, titled Through the Eye of a Muse, have been exhibited in Dublin, Sydney, Toronto, Moscow, London and throughout the United States.
Boyd moved to London in 1962 and worked as a shampoo girl at Elizabeth Arden's salon, until a client who worked for a fashion magazine inspired her to begin work as a model. She was photographed by David Bailey and Terence Donovan, and appeared on the cover of Vogue. She was cast for A Hard Day's Night, where she met George Harrison.
Boyd exhibited her photos of Harrison and Clapton, at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day, 2005, in a show entitled, Through the Eye of a Muse. The exhibition appeared in San Francisco and London during 2006, and in La Jolla, California in 2008.
Boyd's photography was shown in Dublin and in Toronto in 2008 and at the Blender Gallery in Sydney, Australia and in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2009 and 2010. Her exhibit, "Yesterday and Today: The Beatles and Eric Clapton," was shown in Santa Catalina Island in California, and at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC in 2011.
When Harrison asked Boyd on a date, she was "semi-engaged" to photographer Eric Swayne at the time and declined. Several days later, after ending her relationship with Swayne, she went back to work on the film and Harrison asked her out on a date for a second time.
The couple went to a private gentlemen's club called the Garrick Club, chaperoned by the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. 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?"
Boyd had her first encounter with LSD in early 1965 when the couple's dentist, John Riley, secretly laced her coffee with the drug during a dinner party at his home. As she was getting ready to leave with Harrison, John and Cynthia Lennon, Riley told them that he had spiked their drinks and tried to convince them to stay.
Outside, Boyd was in an agitated state from the drug and threatened to break a store window, but Harrison pulled her away. Later, when Boyd and her group were in an elevator on their way up to the Ad Lib club, they mistakenly believed it was on fire.
Later that year, Boyd moved into Kinfauns with Harrison. The couple were engaged on December 25, 1965, and married on January 21, 1966, in a ceremony at a registry office in Ashley Road, Epsom, with Paul McCartney as best man.
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 in 1967, which resulted in a visit to the Maharishi's seminar in Bangor, the following day.
In 1973, Boyd's marriage to Harrison began to fail and she had an affair with Faces guitarist, Ronnie Wood. She separated from Harrison in 1974 and their divorce was finalized on June 9, 1977.
Boyd said her decision to end their marriage and leave Harrison was based largely on his repeated infidelities, culminating in an affair with Ringo Starr's wife Maureen, which Boyd called "the final straw."
In the late 1960s, Clapton and Harrison became close friends, and began writing and recording music together. At this time Clapton fell in love with Boyd.
His 1970 album with Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, was written to proclaim his love for her, particularly the hit song "Layla."
When Boyd rebuffed his advances late that year, Clapton descended into heroin addiction and self-imposed exile for three years. Boyd moved in with Clapton and married him in 1979. Her struggles within the marriage were masked by her public image with Clapton.
Although Boyd drank and admits to past drug use, she never became an alcoholic or a drug addict like Clapton did. Boyd left Clapton in September, 1984, and divorced him in 1988. Her stated reasons were Clapton's years of alcoholism, as well as his numerous affairs including one with Italian model, Lory Del Santo.
In 1989, her divorce was granted on the grounds of "infidelity and unreasonable behavior."
Boyd believes she was the inspiration for the songs: "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight.”
In April, 2015, Boyd was married for the third time to property developer, Rod Weston, was quoted as saying, "It's almost our silver anniversary so we thought we had better get on with it.”