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Pattie Boyd, 80, with photos that she had auctioned off: “Totally overwhelmed” by the proceeds

Photo: Neil Hall / EPA

Pattie Boyd was married to Beatles guitarist George Harrison. But that didn't stop the British top model from having an affair with musician Eric Clapton in the late 1960s.

They met sporadically for a few years, then Pattie ended the fling. Clapton threatened to turn her into a junkie if she didn't move in with him, but Pattie Boyd refused to let him pressure her.

In 1971, on the back of a page of the novel “Of Mice and Men,” Clapton wrote her a letter asking why she was still hesitating: whether he was a bad lover or ugly, too weak, too strong? This letter has now been auctioned in London for around 120,000 pounds (around 140,000 euros).

Postcards, telegrams, small notes and many photos belonging to Boyd also went under the hammer. According to Christie's auction house, the collection fetched more than seven times its previous estimate. Boyd, who celebrated her 80th birthday a few days ago, said she was "totally overwhelmed."

"I've had these things around me for many, many years," Boyd told the German Press Agency before the auction. »And I thought: If I die, what happens to it? Because my nieces and nephews aren’t really interested.”

Pattie Boyd later got together with Eric Clapton. In 1973, Clapton went through drug rehab; when Harrison and Boyd visited him, his obsession was rekindled.

At a party, Clapton is said to have confessed to his friend George Harrisson: “I have fallen in love with your wife. What are you going to do now?" To which he is said to have replied: "Do what you want. You can have her if I get your girlfriend.”

Pattie Boyd then left the party, apparently disgusted by both of them. Three weeks later she met Eric Clapton, who dedicated the song "Wonderful Tonight" to her. They married, but she left him again in 1984. Three years later she divorced.

Shortly afterwards, Eric Clapton and George Harrison went on tour together. Clapton sang “Wonderful Tonight” and “Layla,” and Harrison sang “Something,” a song he also once wrote for Pattie. The men remained friends until Harrison's death in 2011.

The most money at the auction was brought in by an oil painting that Clapton had once bought and later given to Harrison. "When he basically stole me from George, he gave him the painting," Boyd said. Harrison, in turn, gave it to Boyd when she divorced Clapton.

The picture comes from the artist Frandsen De Schomberg. It is said to have reminded Clapton of Boyd and served as the template for the album cover of “Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs”. Boyd now received 1.98 million pounds (around 2.3 million euros) for this.

vet/dpa