That the musician Eric Clapton fell madly in love with the wife of his friend, the Beatle George Harrison, a beautiful model and photographer named Pattie Boyd, and that he did not stop until he managed to marry her is no secret. In fact, that love triangle became the most famous in the rock world in the seventies.
The details of the story have already been told in the past by the protagonists themselves. Pattie Boyd, who married the two music stars, recounted them in her memoirs Wonderful tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and me published in 2007. Now, at 79 years old, she goes one step further and has decided to release up for auction some of his memories and love letters.
The genesis of this triangle begins in 1964, when the Beatles, at the peak of success, filmed the musical comedy What a Night That Day! Among the extras was the model Pattie Boyd, with whom George Harrison was absolutely enamored. Pattie became her inspiration for one of the Beatles’ greatest songs, Something, which was released on the 1969 album Abbey Road. The couple crossed the altar in 1966. That marriage was marked by the band’s constant touring. During these separations, Harrison expressed his longing for Boyd through letters and postcards that are now on sale.
At that same time, Eric Clapton entered the scene, who had become a great friend of the Beatle and frequently visited the couple’s home. The Tears in Heaven performer felt hopelessly captivated by Pattie to the point that she secretly wrote letters to him. “I would like to ask you if you still love your husband or if you love someone else. “All this is very important… I have to know,” he said in one of them. But Boyd rejected him. They say that one day Clapton told Harrison: “I’m in love with your wife, what are you going to do about it?” The Beatles guitarist replied, “Do what you want. It does not worry me”.
“No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get her out of my head,” Clapton confessed in his memoir, Clapton: The Autobiography. Boyd, who inspired the Beatles’ song Something, is also Layla’s muse. It was that song that opened the model’s eyes: “It was the most wonderful song she had ever heard,” she admitted. At the same time, Pattie learned that her husband was having an affair with Ringo Starr’s then-wife (Maureen). And that was the last straw.
George and Pattie separated in 1974 (four years later they obtained a divorce) and Eric saw his dream come true. They married in 1979 and separated ten years later due to problems related to Clapton’s alcoholism, abuse, and infidelities. Pattie Boyd and George Harrison maintained a good relationship until the singer’s death in 2001.
Now, all the epistolary material that Boyd kept is put up for auction. “I’ve had it for many years, too many. And I thought, why don’t I sell everything and let everyone else enjoy it?” announced the protagonist. The sale will take place at Christie’s in London from March 15 to 22.
The oldest letter written by Clapton is dated 1970 and in it the singer-songwriter suggests that he should break up with Harrison because he has a strong “feeling” for her. Clapton continued writing to him and his manuscripts claim that he felt devastated because Boyd did not choose him. He even told her that he would sacrifice everything of her for her if he bet on her relationship. “I would sacrifice my family, my god and my very existence for you… And yet you don’t move. “I am at my limit, I have given everything in search of a sign, but there is only silence,” he wrote.
“Why do you doubt this? Am I a poor lover? I’m ugly? Am I too weak or am I too strong? If you want, take me, because I am yours. But if you don’t love me, please break the spell that binds me. Caging wild animals is a sin… And domesticating them is divine. “My love is yours,” can be read in another letter, which goes on sale for a price of 10,000 pounds (almost 12,000 euros).
One of these letters stood out for beginning with a direct question about Boyd’s feelings towards her husband, showing the deep emotional complexity that surrounded this love triangle. “I am writing this letter to you with the main purpose of knowing your feelings towards a topic that we both know well. What I want to ask you is if you still love your husband. All these questions are very impertinent, I know, but if there is still a feeling in your heart for me… you must let me know! Don’t call on the phone! Send a letter… It’s much safer,” said the letter Clapton wrote to Pattie.
