George Harrison’s Wife Revealed the Impact of Rumors She Had an Affair With John Lennon

Before The Beatles’ bitter split, George Harrison and John Lennon often went on vacation together. The group’s manager, Brian Epstein, organized lengthy and elaborate trips for the band members, and they typically brought along their significant others. Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, said she got along quite well with Lennon. She never felt the same connection with his wife, Cynthia Lennon, and wondered if this had something to do with the rumors of an affair between herself and Lennon. 

George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, John Lennon, and Cynthia Lennon often traveled together

In between The Beatles’ busy touring and recording schedule, Epstein would organize vacations for the band. Boyd explained that he often split them up to avoid conflict. 

“In May Brian arranged a holiday for us all,” she wrote in the book Wonderful Tonight. “He split us up into fours, and that was usually the way we holidayed from then on. Paul and Jane, Ringo and Maureen went off to the Virgin Islands, while John and Cynthia, George and I went to Tahiti, where we planned to spend four weeks island-hopping on a boat.” 

She explained that this setup helped avoid arguments. 

“It was a good way to split the group,” she wrote. “John and Paul were the closest in some ways and immensely creative together, but they clashed if they were in each other’s pockets for too long.” 

George Harrison’s wife addressed the rumors that she had an affair with John Lennon

The vacation dynamic meant that Boyd spent a lot of time with Lennon’s wife, Cynthia. While Boyd liked the other woman, they never truly became friends.

“I liked Cynthia, but of all the Beatle wives and girlfriends I found her the most difficult to make friends with,” Boyd wrote. “She and I came from such different backgrounds; she had no career, she was a young mother, and we had no point of reference apart from our attachment to a Beatle.” 

Boyd speculated that Cynthia may have felt overwhelmed by the social circle she was suddenly involved in. She also wondered if the rumors of an affair between herself and Lennon stymied any possibility of a friendship with Cynthia. 

“I think she felt a bit out of her depth in the smart, sophisticated circles in which the Beatles were now moving in London,” she wrote. “And I don’t think it helped that John thought I looked like Brigitte Bardot, or that I got on so well with him. There was a rumor — I don’t know where it came from — that John and I had an affair, and I suppose Cynthia may have believed there was something in it.”

Boyd denied ever being involved with Lennon. 

“It was completely untrue: we never had an affair,” she wrote. “I wouldn’t have dreamed of it and neither, I’m sure, would John.”

George Harrison had an affair with Ringo Starr’s wife

Harrison, however, did involve himself with the partner of one of his bandmates. In what Boyd considered the “final straw” in her marriage to Harrison, he began an affair with Ringo Starr’s wife, Maureen.

“The final straw was his affair with Maureen Starr, Ringo’s wife,” she explained. “She was the last person I would have expected to stab me in the back, but she did.”

While Harrison tried to deny the affair for a while, he eventually admitted that he was in love with Maureen. Both couples would go on to divorce.