Pattie Boyd Says She Didn’t See Her Ex-Husbands, George Harrison and Eric Clapton, as ‘Giants’
Pattie Boyd says she didn’t see her ex-husbands, George Harrison and Eric Clapton, as “giants.” They and all their famous friends were just ordinary people to her. She only saw them as the men she knew.
Pattie Boyd said she didn’t see her ex-husbands, George Harrison and Eric Clapton, as ‘giants’
In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Boyd explained that she never thought of George and Clapton as the “giants” they were. It wasn’t strange seeing them perform or appear on TV.
“The point is it doesn’t matter about what they do, they are your friends and that’s that,” Boyd said of her famous friends.
“It was the same with George and Eric,” she continued. “It was always difficult for me to get my head around the fact that they were giants. Obviously, I knew they were wonderful musicians, but I didn’t see them in the same way that people who don’t know them see them.
“I remember the first time George and I were seeing each other, and The Beatles were on TV, and I went: ‘Oh look at George with his day job.’ He was with The Beatles, but he was still my George as well.
“Then there was the on-stage Eric, and it was wildly exciting standing on the side, seeing everyone screaming for him, but then there was at-home Eric, and they were just two different parts of the same person.”
Boyd said her ex-husbands were ordinary people
The model/actor told El Pais something similar. She thought of her ex-husbands as ordinary people.
“I don’t miss those times,” Boyd said with sarcasm. “If I could transport myself there right now, I would love it, of course, but I loved my life then the same way I love it now. It was living in a bubble, surrounded by famous people, where all doors were open to you.
“But even today I lead a wonderful life. Did the fame of the group affect me? They did not behave as if they were special. They were ordinary people. That made everything very easy.”
No one prepared the model/actor for being a Beatle’s girlfriend
Boyd felt her ex-husbands were ordinary people, but she must have felt some of their star power. During an interview for Harper’s Bazaar, Boyd told Taylor Swift that she had a hard time adjusting to being a Beatle’s girlfriend at first.
In 1964, George met Boyd on the set of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. After that first day, George asked Boyd to marry him. She laughed, unable to decipher whether he was joking. Then, George asked for a date instead, but Boyd declined because she was dating someone.
However, Boyd later broke up with her boyfriend and told George the next day on set. He asked her out again, and she agreed. Boyd said no one prepared her for the things to come.
“Nobody took on that role,” Boyd said. “Nobody thought that role would be significant for a start. I remember a journalist coming to our house one day and saying to George, ‘In all seriousness, when do you think the bubble is going to burst? When are the Beatles going to be finished?’
“If they thought that, there’s no reason anyone would think, ‘Ah, I’ll look after Pattie and guide her through what is going to be a tremendously difficult situation for a young girl to cope with.’ The only thing Brian Epstein, their manager, told me and the other wives and girlfriends was, ‘Don’t talk to the press.'”
It’s good that Boyd felt that her ex-husbands were ordinary, especially when there were times when their relationships certainly didn’t feel the same.
