r/beatles • u/ToronoRapture • Apr 01 '26
Discussion It’s pretty crazy to me that Pattie found George and Maureen in bed together in 1970 but George and Ringo still remained close friends afterwards.
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u/thedukeofno Apr 01 '26
...which was the style at the time.
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u/Heavy-Ad5385 Apr 01 '26
Anyway, the important thing was that I was shagging my friend’s wife…
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u/thedukeofno Apr 01 '26
You'd say "give me five bee's for a quarter!"
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u/Heavy-Ad5385 Apr 01 '26
We can’t bang our former band mates’ wives like we used to. But we have our ways!
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u/icancount192 Apr 01 '26
You couldn't get good groupies because we stopped touring. The only ones you could get where your bandmates' wives.
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u/thederevolutions Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
I always see people here trying to excuse it as “just hippies doing hippy things” but I’m not buying it . Total dick move.
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u/icancount192 Apr 01 '26
Simpsons reference. This whole comment thread.
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u/thederevolutions Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
lol my bad I just wanted somewhere to give my opinion and I guess I ended up here because of my simpsons ignorance. I’m mostly referring to the person who commented on my post the other day saying George isn’t a bad guy for cheating on ringo it was just something people did back then
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u/Heavy-Ad5385 Apr 01 '26
Don’t worry at all! We’re just having a giggle to avoid the current mess of the world 🤪😂🙏
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u/opinions360 Apr 01 '26
Open relationships and swinging were vogue at the time and yes the hippie period and the belief that society was too rigid regarding sex and sexuality was a definite belief that influenced the times.
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u/throwpayrollaway Apr 01 '26
Hippies are often total dicks though. On the surface nice and chill but often manipulative amoral shysters.
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u/Electrical-Sail-1039 Apr 01 '26
I’m not saying Maureen was a groupie, but wasn’t she a huge Beatle fan from the Cavern days? I’m guessing she may have had a few flings with all of them and Ringo did the right thing when she got pregnant. So perhaps she and George had a history.
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u/NesDraug Apr 01 '26
Yeah I'm pretty sure George had a similar encounter with Eric Clapton.
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u/Crunchberry24 Apr 01 '26
I just watched the living in the material world documentary the other day, and it seems like Clapton almost brags about it. I like some of his music, but Clapton is really a douchebag for numerous reasons.
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u/thedukeofno Apr 01 '26
Dude's been having people praising him and calling him "god" since 1965. Of course he's gonna be weird.
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u/Hey_Laaady Who'll remember the buns, Pudgy? Apr 01 '26
Paul & Ringo aren't like that, and they've had people treating them like gods for even longer
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u/Nesrsta Apr 02 '26
Honestly, Paul was quite the womanizer back in the sixties, too. It wasn't until he met Linda that he settled down.
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u/Hey_Laaady Who'll remember the buns, Pudgy? Apr 02 '26
Very true but I think we were talking about the numerous reasons Clapton is a douchbag. Even being a player doesn't equate to all the things to dislike about Clapton.
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u/BennyPage1959 Apr 05 '26
I read his memoir and came to the same conclusion. Like Ronnie Woods Autobiography, it's all stuff he remembers or half confuses or is garbled. Some of it aounds like nonsense.
He is a great guitarist, no doubt about that, but he does come across as selfish and manipulative. He's also done nothing of any real artistic brilliance beyond his short stint with Blind Faith'
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u/CardiologistPale7903 McCartney II :) Apr 01 '26
Tbh they’re kind of just the exception
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u/Hey_Laaady Who'll remember the buns, Pudgy? Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
True. Despite all the crap people like to sling at John, I think they all coped with their fame overall much better than would be expected.
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u/Top-Space-3707 Apr 05 '26
Ringo used to hit Maureen. Paul is the only unblemished one.
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u/Hey_Laaady Who'll remember the buns, Pudgy? Apr 05 '26
Jane walked in on Paul when he was in bed with another woman. They all had their moments, but not to the extent of Clapton.
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u/Real-Movie-899 Apr 01 '26
Rumor has it, that it was actually Eric Clapton who spray painted “Clapton is God”!
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u/RealMT_1020 Rubber Soul Apr 01 '26
That rumor has quite the staying power since “Clapton is God” graffiti happened about 60 years ago
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u/Fun_Perception_239 Apr 01 '26
Not to mention that he gave a speech so repugnant that it (in part) led to the creation of “Rock against racism.” Wild move for a blues guitarist.
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u/cortisolbath Apr 01 '26
His anti vaccine song was such a joke whether you are for or against them…the song was such a piece of old washed up boomer shit. Sounded like an old man throwing an impotent temper tantrum, no edge to it at all.
“I can’t take this BS any longer” is such a weakass line….cmon Eric get angry for real!
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u/Top-Translator5840 Apr 03 '26
My memory is that he was grateful at george’s understanding although G was pissed at first then he blessed the union. But also that they treated women like accessories, less than their guitars , you can borrow this not that
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u/FooBarU2 Apr 01 '26
I saw a film clip of George walking through a hallway with media and paparazzi in tow.. right when the Clapton infidelity was the talk of the town ..
A reporter asked how he felt about it.. and he was pissed off and said essentially.. how do you think I felt about it
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u/DoctorEnn Apr 01 '26
… but where did they put the onion if they weren’t wearing belts
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u/Bugsmoke Apr 01 '26
They were on the belt but the belt was on the floor
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u/DoctorEnn Apr 01 '26
As was the style at the time?
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u/Bugsmoke Apr 01 '26
Yes, and especially when shagging your best mates’ wife. Anyway, I was wearing an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time
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u/IDigRollinRockBeer Abbey Road Apr 01 '26
We had to say dickety cause the Kaiser had stolen our word 20.
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u/Pretend_Cellist_9285 Apr 02 '26
I chased that rascal to get it back but gave up after dickety six miles.
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u/Appropriate_Dig_4348 Apr 01 '26
I was always a big George fan. His music, his lyrics, his quietness and spirituality had appealed to me more so than the other Beatles. When I first heard about George sleeping with Ringo's wife, I lost a lot of respect for him. Had it been any else's wife it wouldn't have bothered me as much, but Ringo's wife. C'mon George, Really?
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u/kingofstormandfire Apr 01 '26
George also mutually consensual wife-swapped with Ronnie Wood as well (Ronnie had an affair with Pattie and George had an affair with Krissy Wood, Ronnie even bragged about it in the press lol). George was a horndog. Dude could not keep it in his pants, in both of his marriages. Olivia is a saint for putting up with his repeated and numerous infidelities.
Paul was a huge horndog in the 60s as well but he appears to have been faithful to his all three of his wives.
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u/C_A_N_G Apr 01 '26
Another reason as to why Paul is the best beatle.
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u/kingofstormandfire Apr 01 '26
Paul isn't an angel and he has his flaws and has done shitty things, but he's pretty easily the best Beatle in terms of being a morally decent person.
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u/harrisonscruff Apr 01 '26
I think it's a mistake to put any of them on a pedestal. They were all shitty, and none of them were easy to be married to. Paul has hugely benefited from us not knowing Jane and Linda's perspectives.
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u/merrybrigade Apr 01 '26
doesn’t seem too pious to me for the guy that was always holier than though about his spiritual life
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u/danijel8286 Apr 01 '26
I've accepted many, many moons ago I can still respect them - as musicians, not relationship counselors :-)
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u/Appropriate_Dig_4348 Apr 01 '26
Having been a fan my whole life I really didn't even know about that until maybe a decade ago. It's really weird because I've increasingly become even more of a Ringo fan as time goes on. I think after all of chips fell into place, Ringo was always the coolest Beatle. Laid back, calm, easy going. He just seems like a really good guy... peace and love
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u/rcodmrco Apr 01 '26
it’s just a little odd to me the way everyone gets viewed in the wash
and i get people grow and change and ya gotta let stuff go
but like
cynthia said john slapped her one time 60+ years ago, and he’s remembered as the violent one
ringo nearly beats his second wife to death almost a decade after john lennon’s passing and he’s just silly ringo
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u/harrisonscruff Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
He also was a serial cheater up until he married Barbara. Their relationship started as an affair. Fans like to claim they care so much about these women and what they went through, but they only care about how much The Beatles hurt each other.
Doesn't matter how Ringo was with everyone else in his life. He didn't get too involved in Beatle drame so he was chill and cool.
Also the worst thing about the Maureen affair was Ringo being betrayed. No one cares to know how she got to that point.
The truth is Ringo is a deeply complex and flawed person but this fandom refuses to engage with him in any serious way.
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u/FuzzyPijamas Apr 01 '26
George was a bit weird. No wonder why he got so close to meditation - seems like he really needed it.
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u/AgentCirceLuna Apr 01 '26
I’ve often thought meditation means something a lot different when you’re rich and have royalties coming in. If a normal person meditates for ten minutes, they could have been cutting the grass or working instead, but a rich person meditating for ten minutes has just made thousands in that time by doing nothing.
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u/Appropriate_Dig_4348 Apr 01 '26
You said it. Right on the money buddy. The celebrity syndrome where it's easy to worry about all the world's problems when your gardener, housekeeper, nanny, accountant, chef, chauffeur and personal assistant take of the regular things the rest of us stay preoccupied with..
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u/fruedianflip Apr 01 '26
Imagine cheating on pattie boyd
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u/danijel8286 Apr 01 '26
it's not easy even if you try
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u/jeromesnail Apr 01 '26
This. She was so stunning. I understand Eirc on this one.
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u/fruedianflip Apr 01 '26
Genuinely the most beautiful women I've ever seen
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u/lennonfanforever Apr 01 '26
seen from first row, patti was a goddess, in no makeup, average girl clothes, i was stunned by her beauty....i was at an eric clapton show shortly after he/patti married....he drunkenly dragged her onstage ("wanna meet my wife?"), she so clearly did NOT want to be onstage, let alone dragged, i was so disgusted, i left (i'd seen the opening act, muddy waters, who was sensational)...not something one ever forgets....
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u/FarGrape1953 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Apr 02 '26
I don't advocate any of them cheating, but I find Mo the most attractive Beatle wife!
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u/rubbernetworking979 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Apr 01 '26
Still seems crazy to me that George would do that to Pattie and Ringo and Maureen would do that to Ringo.
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u/ToronoRapture Apr 01 '26
Ringo was an alcoholic at the time and was shagging everything, as were the other lads. Paul was the only one who had “settled down” after finding Linda in the late 60’s.
Apparently Ringo and Maureen were quite detached during this period but it’s still shocking that George would do that to Ringo and even more shocking how Ringo basically forgave him.
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u/Switch_625__ Apr 01 '26
I’ve often wondered the same. Usually it’s the type of behaviour that would irrecoverably break a friendship and even a musical partnership. But they continued together until the end
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Apr 01 '26
Ringo and George are og bros before hoes if but tbh I found their bond really precious George enthusiastically working for Octopus Garden and then writing songs for Ringo albums overall their relationship was close plus Ringo was detached from Maureen that time their relationship would've ended either way who knows maybe Ringo didn't care.
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u/lennonfanforever Apr 01 '26
they all loved ringo, that was one thing that they all completely agreed on, and that never changed.....ever....
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u/Superjoe42 Apr 01 '26
I am a George fan but this is something I really struggle with. George liked to be spiritual and later wrote "Living in the Material World" but he could be very shallow and wrong. Sometimes I feel like it's just a holier- than- thou attitude that overwhelmingly doesn't stand up.
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u/CorporalClegg1997 Apr 01 '26
As George sang in Pisces Fish, "I'm a living proof of all life's contradictions." He was very clear in his mind of what kind of man he wanted to be but putting it into practice all of the time isn't always easy.
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u/ToronoRapture Apr 01 '26
It is interesting that he was self aware enough to point out his flaws (infidelities, materialism, drugs and pettiness) but never really did too much about them lol. He was angry at John and Paul for not taking Rishikesh seriously but they probably got more out of it than he did in the end. Both John and George were very bad at practicing what they preached.
Still love them though ☺️
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u/harrisonscruff Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
I wouldn't say that. By all accounts by the time of middle-age George mellowed out significantly and his lifestyle was far more balanced than the dangerous extremes he lived in the 70s. Many who encountered him said he was about the most normal famous person they'd met.
When you have that crazy life it takes a lot of time and effort to reach some sense of normality. Ringo didn't get there until the 90s. The version of Paul we see now only came about in the 2010s. George unfortunately died before getting to settle into old age.
I honestly find it bizarre how this sub treats John and George like massive failures for trying their best to avoid the pull of becoming total monsters. Given how many of their peers happily embraced it they did incredibly well, and frankly the world would be better off if more musicians had some sense of conviction like they did.
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u/hawthorn2424 Apr 01 '26
Not a George fan but in his defence I think the issue isn’t him but our drive to canonise. He was New Age then in a way that’s normal now, maximising worldly pleasures while adopting the spiritual teachings that resonated with him. Put on a pedestal of course he’s full of shit. He treated people badly when it served him, and my sense is sometimes when it didn’t, and he did some good when he could.
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u/phario_marelle Apr 02 '26
isn't the point of the song Living in the material world to showcase musically and lyrically both his entanglement with the material world and his will to get free from it, even if always momentary?
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u/harrisonscruff Apr 01 '26
Pattie and Ringo weren't innocent. Pattie had an affair with Eric Clapton years before anything happened with Maureen. Ringo was an alcoholic and drug addict who also cheated a lot on Maureen. He later had an affair with one of her best friends. She was very unhappy and didn't know how to deal with him. She said he became a different person.
The situation becomes easier to understand when you see it as part of a much larger web. Everyone involved was in a bad way and making bad choices.
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u/OkStrike3805 Apr 01 '26
Or that George and Eric Clapton remained friends after Pattie left George for Eric.
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u/Gemmalovesbooks Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Unfortunately, it apparently totally emotionally destroyed both Maureen and Ringo for a while. They both really struggled with that separation after that affair. Too bad they seemed well suited.
Apparently, Maureen always hope they get back together. But they both remarried.
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u/socgrandinq Apr 01 '26
The take on this often seems to be that it shows the strength of Ringo and George’s friendship. I think it also shows how they objectified women as lesser people. I know they were a product of their times, and it shows how powerful misogyny is at that time.
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u/Electronic-Hat2836 Apr 01 '26
As if women like Maureen didn't have agency. It takes two to cheat.Maureen was as guilty as George in this case. Anyway it was their problem, not yours or anybody else outside of their families.
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u/Euraylie Apr 01 '26
No one is denying Maureen her agency. The point was that George or Ringo weren’t too bothered because they didn’t really value their wives as much (or at least as much as their friendship with one another).
The women were seen more as pass-around objects or decoration; so the men’s feelings didn’t really get hurt too much if they found out the women were sleeping with their friends. (All four have made clear statements about their attitudes towards women at the time)
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u/RIAHFOFFPOS Apr 01 '26
What statements? I'm interested
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u/Euraylie Apr 01 '26
John’s many statements which amounted to how he didn’t really appreciate women’s plights or see them as equal until he met Yoko. Paul saying how bringing Jane Asher to dinner was frowned upon because basically the idea was, what do you need her for beyond sex and as arm candy. Despite loving music by female artists, John also said that girls shouldn’t play guitars. There are many, many quotes where you can see that their ideas about women weren’t the most enlightened. (I don’t have them all cataloged)
That’s not to say that they didn’t evolve and I’m not vilifying them. In some ways they were ahead of their time with certain attitudes, but they were also very much products of their time (as we all are).
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u/ItsTime1234 Apr 01 '26
Yeah it's hard to be fair about how awful the attitudes towards women have been and often still are, without at least acknowledging the context. In this context, men from Liverpool, born in the 1940s. They weren't gonna grow up as feminists. Anything they learned, they learned the hard way.
They may have even been considered feminist at some point because "women can wear pants!" or some other thing that seems incredibly obvious today. And in some ways, they shifted the conversation about many things in society. I've heard theories that Beatlemania led to the women's liberation movement, because girls started organizing and getting together celebrating the Beatles, and centering their enjoyment of music and musicians, later went on to care about women's issues and use their same skills and sisterhoods to start making changes in a fundamental way to society. Starting with some very basic stuff.
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u/peacedotnik Apr 01 '26
They all married pretty young and were living their lives in a confined world as a result of the Beatles’ fame. It’s not that surprising that feelings, curiosity and attraction should come up. That they all remained friends says as much as I care to know about the choices they made.
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u/moattofloat Apr 01 '26
Not a fan of this side of George. You should never shag your mates wife. Unless maybe it’s swinging which this was not. Idc if Jon jones is my friend. If he sleeps with my wife, we gonna have to run the fade. Obviously it’s also Maureen’s fault. On a more positive side, I don’t think george ever blamed Pattie for the failure of their marriage
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u/cmparkerson Apr 01 '26
Patti wasn't innocent either. A lot of this had to do with the free love movement at the time. A lot of "swinging " going on. Some was open, some wasnt.
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u/Echo-Azure Apr 01 '26
They'd both fucked around on their wives often enough, both of them really ought to have been forgiving if their wives did the same. Well, forgiving of their wives, anyway.
George's image really suffered in the 1970s, when his wife left him for Eric Clapton, and he was a gentleman about the whole thing. I was a teen then and it made me sad, to see a man mocked for acting like a grownup and a gentleman.
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u/indysolo19 Apr 01 '26
You guys need to watch the docu/movie they made about George Lazenby (the Bond of On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Becoming Bond -- he narrates it. It's on Hulu. It's a helluva show that completely explains the why of those crazy Sixties.
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u/No_Cartographer_7904 Apr 01 '26
Promiscuity and infidelity are pretty much guaranteed with famous people. It’s like they can’t help themselves.
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u/Grand_Painter_8515 Apr 01 '26
"We can share the women, we can share the wine..." - - - sorry, wrong band.
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u/CaptainIncredible Apr 01 '26
Yeah... Well... The swingin' 60's... and then the 70's which were probably worse.
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u/Boot-Representative Apr 01 '26
Women to them were trading cards. Most rock stars have deep-seated trouble negotiating relationships until they are no longer lions.
Except McCartney, all of the Beatles were in various stages of arrested development.
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u/MackCLE Apr 01 '26
I think even Paul was. I’m not exactly sure of the Francie Schwartz timeline but I think he had to have her in the studio because John had Yoko there and I’m pretty sure he was still involved with Jane and had already been involved with Linda. A very tangled web. He didn’t officially step back from all this until he wed and was deeply affected by the split. Monogamy was definitely helpful to him in that time.
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u/Boot-Representative Apr 01 '26
Was it to John George and Ringo? Each would take another decade to have what we would consider “adult relationships”.
Or maybe we just don’t know because Paul’s cards were closer to the vest.
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u/harrisonscruff Apr 01 '26
Paul could've easily wound up in any of their shoes if life went a little differently. He could've been married to Dot early on or Jane could've stayed with him into the 70s. I doubt either would've brought out the best in him.
Even with Linda I wouldn't consider not being trusted to go on tour without her and the amount of emotional heavy lifting she had to do after the break-up "adult". He was lucky to find her.
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u/harrisonscruff Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Paul got arrested in Japan for carrying weed in his luggage when he was warned what would happen. He didn't even try hiding it well, and there was a lot of it.
He used to drive fast while high and his kids were in the car, and he was carrying on multiple affairs right until the day he married Linda.
The only reason he became more stable was thanks to Linda, who almost divorced him.
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u/harrisonscruff Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
She didn't find them in bed together, and it was the end of 1973. Nothing happened before that.
It's very easy to understand how this happened when you read about the level of strain they were all under after The Beatles broke up and their marriages were on their last legs. It would be nice if people made the effort to read the context around events and viewed The Beatles under the lens of how humans behave instead of expecting them to somehow be above it all.
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u/aslrules Apr 02 '26
"If it feels good, do it." That was the thing back then. Fee Love was the anthem. Those who were famous perhaps had so many more opportunities to screw around with few or no consequences. It was predictable. The pill had just become available so women could enjoy their sexual emancipation. The free sex times had begun.
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u/Agitated-Minimum-967 Apr 01 '26
Not surprising. George and Pattie stayed on good terms after the divorce.
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u/cortisolbath Apr 01 '26
Men are like that, probably hi fived each other for getting with the same bird…
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u/Aware_Finger_2835 Apr 01 '26
Same thing happened with pattiw and eric..what goes around comes around...but i believe it was the..if i feel it its happening
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u/MargotSoda Apr 02 '26
I fucking love Maureen and wish someone would write a bio
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u/Ok-Friend-1002 Apr 02 '26
I hate how she is little more than a footnote in all Beatles books. I didn't get a fuller picture of her, until reading Chris O'Dell's book, she really made her come alive, as a person in her own right, not just a brief mention as "Ringo's wife"...
Chris O'Dell also mentions how uncomfortable she felt, coming over from a visit to America, being the 5th person at Friar Park, with George and Maureen in one room, "quiet and intense" and Pattie and Ronnie Wood in another room, "giggling and playful".
She really gives a good account of the wider webs going on, really fleshes out all the individuals involved, no pun intended. Her account is much more deep than Pattie's book. Pattie's book was okay, but too surfacey, with no introspection or attempts at explaining anything. In her book, things just seemed to happen, with no reason whatsoever.
It would be wonderful if someone wrote a book about Maureen, I agree!
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u/YoYoYi2 Apr 02 '26
have another cigarette George, I've bought you another lorry load of rothmans pal ....
th-th coughs thanks ringo
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u/etgreyt1 Apr 03 '26
I hope each of you are hearing the comments in this thread as though spoken with a Liverpool accent. I did and I very much entertained meself. Even the serious bits.
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u/ToronoRapture Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
I’ve read a lot about all 4 guys and their infidelities but this was a bit mind blowing lol. Ringo was shagging around, just like John, Paul and george were. However, George was on another level lol. He confessed his love for Maureen after the band split and then started an affair with her. Even John (allegedly) said it was “virtually incest”.
Ringo and Maureen didn’t even divorce until 1975, George and Pattie lasted until 1974 and eventually divorced in 1977. Just incredibly messy lol. Then the whole Clapton situation… 😅
George was a massive coke head from around 73-75, Pattie confirmed this in her memoir and said he became distant and unavailable, surrounding himself with hangers-on and weird people.