Pattie Boyd: Snowflake youths have stolen our hard-won freedoms
SHE shot to fame as a model in the Swinging Sixties when she dated The Beatles’ George Harrison, whom she later married.
And now, at 78, Pattie Boyd admits she misses those liberated days.
‘Everybody’s so different, particularly young people now,’ says photographer Boyd. ‘You know, they’re woke and oversensitive about everything. And I thought, “How odd”.
‘I feel that there’s been a huge cycle, because in the 1960s we broke away. We wanted freedom, we fought for it, and we wore outrageous clothes and short dresses. Artists painted outrageous things, filmmakers started being totally free. Here was a freedom suddenly.
‘I feel that cycle is now coming to an end. The freedom has been taken away. It’s the opposite of the 1960s, when we were brave and we could say and do anything.’
Boyd, who was one of the most photographed figures in Swinging London, inspired a string of pop songs, including Harrison’s Something. She was also at the heart of the most talked-about love triangle in rock history.
Eric Clapton fell for Boyd after becoming a close friend of the late Beatle. When she initially rejected Clapton’s advances, he descended into heroin addiction and selfimposed exile for three years. Once cured, he pursued her again, and she eventually agreed to leave Harrison.
Boyd split up with Clapton in 1987, and later married property developer Rod Weston in 2015.
In 2019, she revealed her heartache at not being able to become a mother. ‘I thought that, naturally, when I grew
up and got married I’d have children,’ she said. ‘I thought it just goes with the idea of being a woman. Then, when it didn’t happen, I started to panic and wondered why.
‘Once you come to terms with the fact that it’s not going to happen to you, it takes a while to get a grip on reality and bite your lip.’
Harrison would not consider adoption when they found out they were unable to conceive. Boyd and Clapton were also unable to have children despite trying in vitro fertilisation.
‘The fantasy of having children is wonderful, but when you realise that none of that is going to happen, it’s a hard pill to swallow,’ she said.
‘Once you get over that, you come to the realisation that you’ve got great friends and life is fabulous. I believe that we can’t force nature.’