When most people think of romantic mess and The Beatles, they usually recall the persistent — and false — rumor that John Lennon’s second wife, Yoko Ono, was responsible for the band’s split. The lesser-known drama, however, concerns Ringo Starr and George Harrison, and the latter’s affair with the former’s wife.
Shortly after Starr joined The Beatles in 1962, he met Maureen Cox, who became his spouse three years later. Harrison, meanwhile, married Pattie Boyd in 1966 after meeting her during production of A Hard Day’s Night.
By the mid-1970s, however, both marriages had ended, and Starr and Harrison eventually moved on with Barbara Bach and Olivia Arias, respectively.
Keep scrolling for everything to know about Harrison’s alleged affair with Cox.
Who Was Ringo Starr’s 1st Wife?
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey) married his first wife, Maureen Cox, in 1965, when she was 18 and he was 24. Fellow Beatles members George Harrison and John Lennon were witnesses, while the band’s manager Brian Epstein served as the best man. (Paul McCartney was in Tunisia and unable to attend.)
Before meeting Starr, Cox worked as a hairdresser in Liverpool, England. As a teenager, she began going to the Cavern Club, which often hosted The Beatles in their early years. In 1962, she and Starr started dating, and he proposed to her in January 1965.
Cox and Starr went on to welcome three children: sons Zak (born in 1965) and Jason (born in 1967) and daughter Lee (born in 1970).
Ringo Starr and Wife Barbara Bach’s Relationship Timeline
Did Ringo Starr’s Wife Cheat on Him With George Harrison?
According to George Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd, Maureen Cox had an affair with Harrison during the heyday of The Beatles. This was allegedly one of a series of infidelities that led Boyd and Harrison to separate in 1974.
“The final straw was his affair with Maureen Starr, Ringo’s wife,” Boyd wrote in her 2007 memoir, Wonderful Today. “She was the last person I would have expected to stab me in the back, but she did.”
Boyd went on to claim that she once came home to find Cox and Harrison locked in a room together.
“I stood outside banging on the door and saying to George, ‘What are you doing? Maureen’s in there, isn’t she? I know she is,’ but he laughed,” she wrote. “He was supposed to be in the studio and everyone was waiting for him. Eventually he opened the door and said, ‘Oh, she’s just a bit tired so she’s lying down.’”
Ringo Starr Reveals Long-Standing Rumor Is True
What Have Ringo Starr and George Harrison Said About the Affair?
Neither Ringo Starr nor George Harrison ever publicly commented on the alleged affair with Maureen Cox, but according to a 2023 biography of Harrison, he eventually confessed to Starr. In George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle, author Philip Norman claimed that Harrison told Starr, “I’m in love with your wife.”
Per Norman, Starr replied, “Better you than someone we don’t know.”
In the same book, Pattie Boyd claimed that Cox and Harrison intentionally flaunted their affair in front of her. “Her attitude was very much that she had the right to spend the night with George if she felt like it,” Boyd told Norman. “I thought, ‘This is being deliberately rubbed in my face.’ He and Maureen want me to know this is happening.”
Did George Harrison Marry Ringo Starr’s Wife?
While George Harrison’s affair with Maureen Cox led to the demise of their respective marriages, it didn’t end in lasting love. After Harrison divorced Boyd in 1977, he moved on with second wife Olivia Arias, with whom he welcomed his only child, son Dhani. Harrison was married to Arias until he died from lung cancer in 2001 at age 58.
Boyd, meanwhile, married Eric Clapton in 1979, but the couple divorced 10 years later. (Before their marriage, Clapton wrote his famous song “Layla” about Boyd.)
Cox, for her part, divorced Starr in 1975 after his affair with model Nancy Lee Andrews. She went on to begin a relationship with Isaac Tigrett, who cofounded the Hard Rock Café and House of Blues chains. They were married until Cox died in 1994 at age 48 from leukemia.
After Cox’s death, Paul McCartney paid tribute to her with the song “Little Willow,” which appeared on his 1997 solo album, Flaming Pie.
Who Is Ringo Starr Married to Now?
Following his split from Maureen Cox, Ringo Starr married his second wife, Barbara Bach, in 1981. The couple appeared together in the 1981 comedy film Caveman, which also starred Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long. According to Starr, however, their first encounter happened in an airport.
“I went to LAX to check in on a plane to go to Mexico, and Barbara was on the other side of the counter with her boyfriend, and I fell in love with her,” Starr told Extra. “And then she tortured me for two months, and we’ve been together ever since.”
Starr is also the stepfather of Bach’s two children from a previous relationship: Francesca (born in 1968) and Gianni (born in 1972).
Bach inspired a song called “Thankful” on Starr’s latest album, 2025’s Look Up. “My world came crashing down and shattered / Then you came along / My shelter from the storm,” Starr sings. “I put my life into your hands / And you made me a better man.”