George Harrisons Love Triangle With First Wife & Eric Clapton

Publish date: 2024-05-07

Prior to finding love with Olivia Arias, Beatles bandmate George Harrison was reportedly in a “love triangle” with his first wife, Pattie Boyd, and fellow musician Eric Clapton for a couple of years. 

Fox News reports that in a new book, George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle, by biographer Phil Norman, it was revealed on how the situation between Harrison, Boyd, and Clapton came to be. Harrison and Clapton were notably best friends. 

“George was a massive contradiction,” Norman declared to the media outlet. “And this very curious relationship evolved after his best friend Eric Clapton became absolutely infatuated with his first wife… you never know what goes on between these guitar superheroes.” 

George Harrison first met Boyd on the set of A Hard’s Day Night in 1964. Norman revealed Harrison became so smitten by Boyd that he asked her to marry him immediately.  When she responded with just laughter, Harrison replied, “Well, if you won’t marry me, will have dinner with me?” After that Boyd broke up with her then boyfriend and married Harrison in 1966. 

Although Boyd thought she was happy to be married to Harrison, the Beatles bandmate struggled with ups and downs in his career. While she did introduce him to mediation, Harrison would become more moody and paranoid when using the technic. “One of George’s assistants told me he would switch from one to the other in lighting speed,” Norman said about Harrison’s personality woes. “You never knew which one was going to be there and when it would change back to the other George. He was always full of contradictions and always unpredictable.”

Eric Clapton Starts Developing Feelings For George Harrison’s First Wife

During Harrison’s personality struggles, Clapton would appear at the couple’s home more frequently. He eventually became openly flirtatious with Boyd and became obsessed with her. Normal pointed out that eventually wrote the song Layla as a form of declaration of his feelings for Boyd. 

Norman said that Eric was owning up to his feelings on stage when playing the song. “She had no idea that the was so infatuated with her for a long, long time. Eventually, he wrote her a rather tortured letter which she thought was just another fan letter from one of George’s fans. She didn’t get it at all.” 

However, Clapton was cautious about his feelings for Boyd due to his friendship with George Harrison. While they were best friends, Clapton would “tread carefully” with the Beatles bandmate. It wasn’t until Harrison saw Boyd and Clapton having an intimate conversation at a party that he decided to confront them. Clapton ended up confessing his feelings for Boyd. Harrison responded to Clapton’s confession by asking Boyd who she was going to end the night with. She told him she was coming home with him.

Harrison and Boyd stayed married for another three years. She ended up ending the marriage when Harrison had an affair with Ringo Starr’s wife, Maureen Starkey. She left Harrison for Clapton in 1974 and she married the musician in 1979. They stayed married until 1989. 

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