Pattie Boyd and George Harrison.Photo: Pattie Boyd/courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery
Pattie Boyd was nervous when she accepted a bit part in the 1964 movieA Hard Day’s Night. Sure, she only had one line —“Prisoners!?"— but she was delivering it tothe Beatles.
“Initially I thought, ‘I can’t do this. I’m not an actress. There’s no way I can do this,'” Boyd tells PEOPLE. “But my agent said to me, ‘Don’t worry, you’ve only got one word to say. Easy peasy. It’ll be fine.'”
She took the leap, and that day on set in March 1964 changed her life. It was there that she met her first husband,George Harrison. Within two years they were married, but life as a Beatle bride wasn’t always easy.
Boyd has opened up about their years together in her new book,Pattie Boyd: My Life in Pictures, a visual treasure trove that draws on 300 images from her personal archive. Showcasing both her dazzling memories and her formidable talent as a photographer, the collection (due out Dec. 20 in the US) is an intimate portrait of rock legends — or, as she calls them, “old friends.”
Harrison’s response to her new love was shockingly good-natured. “He said, ‘Well, I’m glad you’re going off with Eric instead of some idiot,” Boyd remembers. “So he appreciated my choice!” George would jokingly refer to himself ever after as “the husband-in-law” in their presence. The threesome even celebrated Christmas together that same year. When she tied the knot with Clapton in 1979, Harrison was on hand at the reception, serenading the newlyweds with an impromptu jam alongside his old bandmatesPaul McCartneyandRingo Starr.
Boyd would remain close with Harrison for the rest of his life.My Life in Picturescontains the last photo of them together, taken in the early ’90s in the garden of Friar Park, the sprawling estate they’d shared during their final days as a couple.
Pattie Boyd
That was the kind of bond she shared with Harrison. “Just because things didn’t work out as we planned, it didn’t diminish our love for each other.”
source: people.com
