What Is Olivia Harrison's Net Worth?
Olivia Harrison is an American author and film producer who has a net worth of $300 million. Olivia Harrison is best known as the widow of famed Beatle George Harrison, who passed away in 2001. Olivia and George had one child, his only child, a son named Dhani Harrison.
After George's death, Olivia produced a concert in his honor, "Concert for George," with proceeds going to George's Material World Foundation. Olivia's video production won a Grammy for Best Long Form Music Video. She has also produced the music video "Traveling Wilburys: Handle with Care" (1988), the video "The True History of the Traveling Wilburys" (2007), the documentaries "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" (2011) and "The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert" (2022), the film "Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache" (2019), and the docuseries "The Beatles: Get Back" (2022), and several 2005 videos about the Concert for Bangladesh. Harrison has published "Concert for George" and "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" books, and she wrote the 2022 book "Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems for George."
Beatles Wealth
When John Lennon died in 1980, his net worth was $200 million. At that point George was worth $100 million, Ringo Starr was worth $80 million and Paul McCartney was worth $400 million.
Being worth $100 million in 1980 meant George was worth around $300 million in today's dollars. George was worth $400 million at the time of his death in 2001. Harrison left the entirety of his estate to Olivia and their only child, son Dhani Harrison.
Early Life
Olivia Harrison was born Olivia Trinidad Arias on May 18, 1948, in Los Angeles, California. Her grandparents grew up in Guanajuato, Mexico, and migrated to California. Olivia's mother, Mary Louise, was a seamstress, and her father, Zeke, worked as a dry cleaner. Harrison and her siblings, Louise and Peter, were regularly exposed to Mexican films and music during their youth, and their father was a guitarist and singer. The family later moved to Hawthorne, California, and Olivia attended Hawthorne High School.
Career
In the '70s, Harrison was employed in the marketing department at A&M Records, where she worked with artists such as Ravi Shankar, Henry McCullough, Stairsteps, and her future husband, George Harrison. Author Robert Rodriguez stated that Olivia was "a capable and even-tempered administrator, ably handling the routine chaos involved with setting up a record label and dealing with all manner of personalities." Since George's untimely death, Olivia has produced several videos and documentaries and has overseen reissues of his albums, with "Concert for George" and "All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Edition" winning Grammys and "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" and "The Beatles: Get Back" earning Primetime Emmys. She has also continued her late husband's philanthropic initiatives, serving as director of the Material World Foundation, whose mission is to "sponsor diverse forms of artistic expression and to encourage the exploration of alternative life views and philosophies." Olivia is also the director of the Harrison Family Foundation, and in 2005, she launched The George Harrison Fund for UNICEF after the reissue of the "Concert for Bangladesh" film and album. She donated to Salma Hayek's UNICEF fundraiser for victims of the 2017 Mexican earthquakes and pledged that The Harrison Foundation for UNICEF would double the next $200,000 donation.
George and Olivia Harrison in London, June 1992. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Personal Life
Olivia regularly spoke to George Harrison on the phone while working at A&M Records, and they began a relationship after meeting in October 1974. They welcomed son Dhani on August 1, 1978, and they married on September 2, 1978, at the Henley-on-Thames Register Office. In the late '80s, Olivia was a supporter of George's campaign to save the Regal Cinema in Henley from being redeveloped by a supermarket chain, and she campaigned for Parents for Safe Food with Barbara Bach, the wife of Ringo Starr. In 1989, Olivia received death threats and hate mail at Friar Park, the home she and George shared in Henley. In 1990, she founded the charitable organization Romanian Angel Appeal to raise money to help Romanian orphans, and George and his Traveling Wilburys bandmates recorded a cover of Hank Snow's "Nobody's Child" to raise funds for the charity. The single was followed by the 1990 album "Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal," which featured artists such as Elton John, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr, Paul Simon, and Guns N' Roses.
In December 1999, just days after a female stalker had been arrested for breaking into the couple's Maui home, Olivia and George were attacked by a man who broke into Friar Park. The man stabbed George multiple times, then Olivia fought the attacker, hitting him with a fireplace poker and table lamp. After the police arrived, the Harrisons were treated at a hospital. In a 2005 interview with "The Daily Telegraph," Olivia said of the ordeal, "I remember everything about it, every millisecond. I was terrified, but it is one of those things that you just do in a heightened state of awareness so that you can never really forget any of it." Part of one of George's lungs was removed as a result of the attack. The previous year, he had undergone surgery to have a cancerous tumor removed from his neck, and the disease returned as lung cancer less than a year after the attack. The cancer later spread to his brain, and George passed away on November 29, 2001, in Los Angeles, with Olivia and Dhani at his side. Olivia, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono control the Beatles' financial empire, and the four appeared together at Microsoft's 2009 E3 press conference to promote the video game "The Beatles: Rock Band." Olivia is a director of Apple Corps, the Beatles' multimedia corporation.
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Awards and Nominations
Harrison has won two Primetime Emmys, Outstanding Nonfiction Special for "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" (2012) and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series for "The Beatles: Get Back" (2022). She has also won two Grammys, Best Long Form Music Video for "Concert for George" (2005) and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package for "All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Edition" (2022). Olivia earned a PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television for "The Beatles: Get Back" in 2022, and she received an International Documentary Association Award nomination for "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" in 2012.
Real Estate
In 1987, the Harrisons built a home on a six-acre lot on Hamilton Island, Australia. Olivia told "Architectural Digest" in 2007, "George was always on a quest to get as far away as he could. We found Hawaii and built a house there. But he wanted to keep going. We went to Tasmania, New Zealand, Australia. I had the feeling that he maxed the planet out, looking for solitude. It was about 'How far away can I get?'" The property includes three guest huts as well as a pool that "actually comes into the house, and there's a walkway over it."
