Pattie Boyd reveals final moments with ex-husband George Harrison

Model and photographer Pattie Boyd has opened up about her final moments with her ex-husband George Harrison.

Boyd and the former Beatle were married from 1966 until 1977. After their divorce, they remained friends until Harrison’s death in 2001.

Speaking to The Big Issue in an interview with Jane Graham for the weekly Letter To My Younger Self feature, Boyd recalled the last time Harrison came to see her.

“Before he died he came to visit me,” she said. “He was very ill but we didn’t talk about [him dying].

“I think he came just to see me, and catch up and to see where I live. He brought me a few little gifts and we had tea and listened to some music. And when he left I thought, I’ll never see him again.”

Pattie Boyd began a career modelling for magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair, posing for elite photographers like David Bailey and Terence Donovan, when she was 18. She met Harrison shortly after and they were married when she was 22.

“It was wonderful because we were growing up together, we still had so much to learn. London was exploding with creativity and in the fashion world we had all these wonderful designers appear, like Mary Quant and Oz Clarke, and great painters like David Hockney,” she said.

“And spirituality came into our lives as well. George discovered this wonderful Indian instrument that he was fascinated by, and that took us to India where we met Ravi Shanker. I loved him, he was the most generous man and so beautiful and intelligent and articulate. We learned so much from him, we were like little kids, soaking everything up.”

Boyd was later married to Eric Clapton, but divorced him citing his alcoholism and numerous affairs. She is now married to property developer Rod Weston.

• Lorraine Kelly: ‘Who’s gonna tell Bette Davis to put her fag out?’
• Why ‘inspirational women’ was an obvious theme for our new Letter To My Younger Self book
• Pamela des Barres: ‘#MeToo was different in music’
• P.P. Arnold: ‘I was in a relationship with a white boy that just happened to be Mick Jagger’

If she could have one more conversation with anyone, however, Boyd said it would be George Harrison.

“If I could have one last conversation with anyone, it would be with George,” she said. “Because he died in 2001 and every so often in my life, something will happen and I’ll think, George is the only one I can talk to about this. George will know the answer to this. We were such good friends and only he would understand so much of what I’m thinking about or remembering, because we experienced such a thick amount of life together.”

Pattie Boyd’s full Letter To My Younger Self will be published in The Big Issue, on the streets from November 14.

The new book Letter to My Younger Self: Inspirational Women is out now, you can order it here.