What Is Pattie Boyd's Net Worth?
Pattie Boyd is an English model, author, and photographer who has a net worth of $2 million. Pattie Boyd began modeling in 1962 in several international cities. By the end of the decade, she had appeared on the cover of "Vogue" and started writing a column in "16" magazine. Boyd would meet her first husband, George Harrison, on the set of "A Hard Day's Night" in 1964. Harrison asked her to date twice before she agreed, and the couple announced their engagement in 1965, followed by their marriage early the next year. Paul McCartney served as one of Harrison's best men in the nuptials. Her 1973 affair with guitarist Ronnie Wood and Harrison's multiple affairs led to the couple's separation a year later and ultimate divorce in 1977. Boyd was the inspiration for several Beatles songs written by Harrison, including "Love You To," "I Need You," and "Something."
Boyd married Eric Clapton in 1979, a decade after he and her first husband began collaborating on music together. Clapton's album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" was written with the married Pattie in mind, and it has been reported that Boyd's rejections sent Clapton into a downward spiral of heroin abuse. Clapton and Boyd separated in 1984 and divorced in 1988, reportedly because of Clapton's battle with alcohol and several extramarital affairs.
Pattie's autobiography, "Wonderful Today" in the UK and "Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me" in the US, was published in 2007, debuting at #1 on "The New York Times" Best Seller list. Boyd's photography, mostly photos of George Harrison and Eric Clapton, have been on display internationally in cities such as San Francisco, London, Dublin, Toronto and Sydney.
Early Life
Pattie Boyd was born Patricia Anne Boyd on March 17, 1944, in Taunton, England. She is the daughter of Diana and Colin "Jock" Boyd, and she grew up with three younger siblings, Colin, Jenny, and Paula. When Pattie was a child, her family lived in West Lothian, Scotland, and Guildford, Surrey, England. After her father was discharged from the Royal Air Force, the family moved to Nairobi, Kenya, in 1948. When Boyd was 8 years old, she began attending the boarding school the Nakuru School, and at one point, she returned home during a school break and found out that her parents had divorced. Diana later married Bobbie Gaymer-Jones and moved to England with her children. Diana and Bobbie had two sons together, David and Robert, and Jock had two daughters, Clare and Julia, with his second wife. After briefly studying at Putney's Hazeldean School, Pattie attended East Grinstead's St Agnes and St Michael Convent Boarding School and Hertfordshire's St Martha's Convent. In 1961, Boyd passed three GCE O levels, and she later moved to London and took a job as a trainee beautician at Elizabeth Arden's Bond Street salon at the age of 17. There, a client who worked for the young women's magazine "Honey" inspired Pattie to join a modeling agency.
Career
In 1962, Boyd began modeling in Paris and London. She regularly appeared in magazines such as "Vanity Fair," the U.K. version of "Vogue," and French "Elle." She played a schoolgirl in the 1964 Beatles movie "A Hard Day's Night," where she met her future husband George Harrison. Pattie's relationship with George caused her career to skyrocket, resulting in more photo shoots for "Vanity Fair" and "Vogue" and television commercials for L'Oréal's Dop shampoo and Smith's.
Boyd began writing the column "Patti's Letter from London" for the American magazine "16," but due to the fact that she was on the receiving end of hostility of Beatles fans, Harrison asked her to give up her career to protect their privacy.
In 1968, Pattie and her sister Jenny opened the London boutique Jennifer Juniper, with Jenny managing the store and Pattie acting as the buyer. Boyd resumed her modeling career in the early '70s and subsequently graced the cover of British "Vogue" several times. In the '60s, she began taking photos of musicians and joined the Royal Photographic Society.
In 2005, the San Francisco Art Exchange hosted an exhibition of Boyd's photographs of George Harrison and Eric Clapton titled "Through the Eye of a Muse." The exhibition was also shown in London as well as Dublin, Ireland, Sydney, Australia, Toronto, Canada, and Almaty, Kazakhstan. Pattie also had an exhibition called "Yesterday and Today: The Beatles and Eric Clapton," which was shown at Washington, D.C.'s National Geographic Headquarters in 2011. In 1991, Boyd co-founded the organization SHARP (Self Help Addiction Recovery Program) with Ringo Starr's wife, Barbara Bach.
(Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)
Personal Life
When 19-year-old Pattie met George Harrison in March 1964, she was in a relationship with Eric Swayne, a photographer, and declined George when he asked her out. A few days later, she ended her relationship with Swayne and accompanied Harrison to the Garrick Club, along with Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. George bought a home in Esher, Surrey, known as Kinfauns in July 1964, and Boyd soon moved in with him. In 1965, the couple attended a party at the home of their dentist, John Riley, and Riley laced the coffee he served to his guests with LSD. This was Pattie's first experience with the drug, and it caused her to become agitated and threaten to break a store window after they left the party. Boyd and Harrison became engaged on Christmas Day in 1965, and they wed on January 21, 1966, at the Epsom register office. After the Beatles' final tour, Pattie and George spent six weeks as the guests of musician Ravi Shankar in India. Harrison studied the sitar under Shankar's tutelage, and Boyd decided to learn to play the string instrument the dilruba. After they returned to England, Pattie continued studying the dilruba under Shiv Dayal Batish, and she and George continued adhering to a lifestyle of vegetarianism and yoga. The couple shared an interest in Eastern mysticism, and Boyd joined the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in 1967. Pattie and George attended lectures and seminars by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the movement's leader, and in February 1968, they visited the Maharishi's ashram in India along with Harrison's bandmates.
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In March 1969, Boyd and Harrison were arrested for possession of cannabis and were each fined £250 after pleading guilty. By the early '70s, the pair had become divided over George's devotion to the Hare Krishna movement. They also hadn't been able to conceive a child, and Harrison refused to consider adoption.
In 1973, Pattie had an affair with future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood while George was romantically involved with Ronnie's wife, Krissie. Boyd left Harrison in the summer of 1974 because of his repeated infidelities, and she said the "final straw" was his affair with Ringo Starr's then-wife, Maureen. The divorce was finalized in June 1977.
Eric Clapton fell in love with Boyd after he became friends with Harrison in the late '60s, and he wrote the 1970 album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" to express his love for her. Pattie rebuffed Eric's advances in 1970, and Clapton subsequently became addicted to heroin and spent three years in self-imposed exile. He pursued Pattie again in 1974, and they married on March 27, 1979, in Arizona. Boyd began drinking heavily during the marriage, and Clapton later admitted that he was a "full-blown" alcoholic and abused Pattie while they were married. The couple tried in vitro fertilization, but Boyd suffered miscarriages. Pattie left Eric in April 1987, and they divorced two years later. "Rolling Stone" magazine called Boyd a "legendary rock muse" in 2007 for inspiring Harrison and Clapton's music. Pattie met Rod Weston, a property developer, in 1991, and they married in April 2015 at a register office in London.
