36 Facts About Pattie Boyd

Patricia Anne Boyd was born on 17 March 1944 and is an English model and photographer.

Pattie Boyd was one of the leading international models during the 1960s and, with Jean Shrimpton, epitomised the British female look of the era.

Pattie Boyd married George Harrison in 1966, experiencing the height of the Beatles' popularity and sharing in their embrace of Indian spirituality.

Pattie Boyd divorced Harrison in 1977 and married Harrison's friend Eric Clapton in 1979; they divorced in 1989.

Pattie Boyd's youngest sister, Paula, was born at a hospital in Nakuru, Kenya, in 1951.

Pattie Boyd briefly attended Hazeldean School in Putney, and then the St Agnes and St Michael Convent Boarding School in East Grinstead, and St Martha's Convent in Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire.

Pattie Boyd achieved three GCE O level passes in 1961.

Pattie Boyd moved to London the same year and through her mother found work as a trainee beautician, age seventeen, at Elizabeth Arden's Bond Street salon.

Pattie Boyd began her fashion career in 1962, modeling at first in London and Paris.

Pattie Boyd was photographed by David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, among others, and appeared on the cover of British Vogue.

In early 1964, Pattie Boyd appeared in a television advertising campaign for Smith's crisps, directed by Richard Lester.

Pattie Boyd recalls that further assignments for Vogue and Vanity Fair were the result, along with jobs for Tatler, more TV commercials, for Smith's and for L'Oreal's Dop shampoo brand, and advertisements in newspaper fashion pages.

UK underground writer Barry Miles later described her as "by far the most glamorous" of all the Beatles' wives and girlfriends, while author Shawn Levy writes that, even more so than Jane Asher, the London-born stage actress who was Paul McCartney's girlfriend for much of the 1960s, Pattie Boyd epitomised what "sixties stardom was meant to confer upon its chosen".

At the request of Gloria Stavers, Pattie Boyd began writing a column, titled "Patti's Letter from London", for the American teen magazine 16.

Jenny managed the shop, which sold antiques and other objets d'art, while Pattie Boyd was the buyer.

Pattie Boyd says she had "virtually given up" modelling by the early 1970s.

Pattie Boyd resumed her career at that time, promoting designs by Ossie Clark.

Pattie Boyd began taking photographs of musicians and other friends during the 1960s and was a member of the Royal Photographic Society.

Pattie Boyd said that her lack of professional status probably made for a more intimate and authentic mood in her work, since her subjects were relaxed in her company.

Pattie Boyd first exhibited her photos of Harrison and Clapton at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day 2005, in a show titled Through the Eye of a Muse.

Pattie Boyd became involved in charity work following her separation from Clapton in the late 1980s.

Pattie Boyd was in a relationship with photographer Eric Swayne when, at 19 she met Harrison, on 2 March 1964, and therefore declined his initial date proposal.

In July 1964, Harrison bought Kinfauns, a house in Esher, Surrey, to escape the constant attention of fans in central London, and Pattie Boyd soon moved into the house.

Pattie Boyd had her first encounter with LSD in early 1965 when the couple's dentist, John Riley, secretly laced his guests' coffee with the drug during a dinner party at his home.

Outside, Pattie Boyd was in an agitated state from the drug and threatened to break a shop window, but Harrison pulled her away.

On 25 June 1967, Pattie Boyd was among the crowd of friends who participated in the Beatles' Our World broadcast of "All You Need Is Love".

In March 1970, a month before the Beatles' break-up, Pattie Boyd moved with Harrison to Friar Park, a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames.

Pattie Boyd resumed her modelling career in May 1971, in defiance of Harrison's spiritual convictions.

Pattie Boyd said her decision to leave Harrison, in July 1974, was based largely on his repeated infidelities, culminating in his affair with Starr's wife Maureen, which Pattie Boyd called "the final straw".

When Pattie Boyd rebuffed his advances in late 1970, Clapton descended into heroin addiction and self-imposed exile for three years.

Pattie Boyd soon struggled within the marriage and began drinking heavily, but these difficulties were masked by her public image with Clapton.

Pattie Boyd later admitted to raping and abusing her while they were married and he was a "full-blown" alcoholic.

Clapton and Pattie Boyd tried unsuccessfully to have children, trying in vitro fertilisation in 1984 and 1987, but were faced instead with miscarriages.

Pattie Boyd left Clapton in April 1987 and divorced him in 1989.

Pattie Boyd's stated reasons were Clapton's years of alcoholism, as well as his numerous affairs, including one with Italian actress Lory Del Santo.

Pattie Boyd wrote "Golden Ring" for Boyd, in response to her sadness at learning of Harrison's marriage to Olivia Arias in 1978, and the 1983 track "The Shape You're In", which addressed Boyd's drinking.