Pattie Boyd jokes about wanting Layla royalties from ex-husband Eric Clapton
“I asked for that in my divorce!”
Image: Graham Wiltshire / Getty Images
Pattie Boyd, the muse behind some of ex-husband Eric Clapton’s best-known hits, has made a tongue in cheek comment about wanting royalties from the rocker as part of their divorce settlement.
Now 78 and a successful author, Boyd was married to Beatles guitarist George Harrison, though that didn’t stop Clapton from falling in love with her, nor did it stop his repeated proclamations of love.
His then unrequited obsession with the model ended up inspiring the rock classic Layla, though the two only started dating after Boyd and Harrison had divorced as a result of the latter’s repeated affairs.
Boyd eventually married Clapton in 1979, and the couple stayed together for the better part of a decade, before divorcing in 1989. Speaking to The Sunday Times’ Style magazine in a new interview, the former rockstar-wife joked that despite being the woman behind the song, she has not received a single penny from the track.
“I asked for that in my divorce, and he said, ‘Are you kidding?”
“That’s why I have to write books,” Boyd added in jest.
Aside from being Clapton’s muse, Boyd has also inspired some of her first husband Harrison’s finer work with The Beatles, including I Need You, If I Needed Someone, Love You To and the 1969 ballad Something.
Done with the days of rockstar romances, Boyd is currently married to wedding property developer Rod Weston, whom she had met during a holiday in Sri Lanka.