Supermodel Pattie Boyd reveals details of awkward first date with Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison

Pattie Boyd is famously the inspiration for George Harrison’s much-acclaimed song ‘Something,’ and she was a huge part of his journey with the Beatles.

Married for eleven years, Pattie’s love of photography developed around the time of her marriage to Harrison, documenting their life together in the middle of Beatlemania.

Guitarist for Liverpool’s most famous rock band, the Beatles, Harrison instantly fell in love with Pattie, a sixties supermodel and friend to the stars.

In her upcoming book, Pattie Boyd: My Life in Pictures, she shares memories, articles and photographs of her close friends and contemporaries in the fashion and music world including Twiggy, Ronnie Wood, David Bailey, Mick Jagger, Billy Preston and, of course, The Beatles.

Pattie and George

Cast in the Beatles film, A Hard Day’s Night, Pattie said she felt immediately attracted to Harrison, and at the end of the first day of shooting, he asked her to marry him.

In her book, Wonderful Life, Pattie described how she had a boyfriend when the pair first met, however, by the second day of shooting she’d called it off and told Harrison to take her for dinner.

In her soon-to-be-released book, My Life in Pictures, she recalls that very first dinner date:

“My first date with George was arranged by Brian Epstein, and it was very sweet that he was there because it was a terribly glamorous and sophisticated restaurant. ... Grown ups in those days were extremely grown up.

“Brian felt obliged to help us out with choosing wine and things like that. I think he stayed with us all evening. I must say Brian was always very entertaining and George and I were both very shy so it would have helped break the ice.”

They were married in 1966 and divorced in 1977, after infidelities on both sides. Pattie later married Eric Clapton, a close friend of her ex-husband, but the pair remained friends.

Just months before George Harrison sadly passed away from cancer in 2001, he visited Pattie, to say a final goodbye.

Pattie Boyd: My Life in Pictures

Boyd’s newspaper clippings and intimate honeymoon snaps in Barbados can be found in the book, along with moments from the Surrey home she shared with George Harrison.

The collection also includes letters from her marriages and from friends including John and Yoko, diary entries, artefacts, unique, unseen memorabilia, polaroids and artworks such as the original ‘Layla’ album cover painting by Emile Frandsen. It also includes more recent work, including Boyd’s travel and still-life photography.

She also recalls her trip to India with the Beatles and her extraordinary modelling career.