Olivia Harrison talks candidly about her late husband's "challenging" attitude to other women.
Another night of chaos and excess at Friar Park, George Harrison’s immense Victorian Gothic home in Henley, was seen through a haze of dope, cocaine and alcohol.
In 1973 drew to a close, Harrison’s friend and houseguest Ronnie Wood took him aside and told him that he intended to sleep with the former Beatle’s wife Pattie Boyd that evening. Harrison’s response was to point to the room which Wood was sharing with his wife Krissie and say: ‘And I shall be sleeping there.’During this period, Harrison also slept with Ringo Starr’s wife Maureen, having announced during a dinner party - and in front of Pattie - that he wanted her. (Dailymail)
Sir Paul McCartney adds: ‘I don’t want to say much because he was a pal, but he liked the things that men like. He was red-blooded.’
Both Ringo and Pattie were greatly distressed, and Pattie in particular became annoyed by Maureen’s habit of turning up late at night and spending the evening in meditation with her husband, or locking herself away in a studio with him.
‘To be honest,’ Clapton says, ‘there was a lot of swapping and fooling around.’
‘That whole period was insane. Friar Park was a madhouse. We were all as drunk, stoned and single-minded as each other.’ (Patty Boyd)
Olivia suggests that her husband had several affairs, which she endured, simply waiting for them to pass and forgiving him when they did.
‘He liked women and women liked him,’ she says. ‘If he just said a couple of words to you, it would have a profound effect. It was hard to deal with someone who was so well loved,’ Olivia said. (theguardian.com)
Two Beatles roadies, Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, assert: ‘He wanted to seduce every woman he laid eyes on. Rather extraordinarily, more than one source suspects that he had a heavy flirtation with Madonna on the set of the 1986 film Shanghai Surprise, despite the presence of her first husband Sean Penn.
There was a real sense in which their married life was a retreat. Harrison concentrated on the enormous task of renovating the house and tending the gardens. He became passionate about horticulture. To live invisible to the throng behind high walls was a release after the pressure of being a Beatle.
‘If you had something like two million people screaming at you, I think it would take a long time to stop hearing that in your head. (Harrison)
