Maureen Forever

A NEW PHOTO OF MAUREEN! Getty Images has added another image of Maureen Starkey at the July 17, 1978 Playboy Bunnies party hosted by Victor Lowness at his Hertfordshire estate, Stocks. Ringo was invited as one of England's most eligible bachelors, but attended with ex-wife Maureen and their children. Maureen is watching the hot air balloon rides. copied from Facebook group Something About the Beatles’s Girls

April 6, 1992 - George Harrison performed his first and only solo concert in the UK at the Royal Albert Hall benefiting the Natural Law Party three days before the General Election. The natural Law Party promoted Transcendental Meditation and living a natural lifestyle. Among George's supporters joining him backstage were Julian Lennon, Maureen Tigrett, Ringo Starr and Lee Starkey among other notable rockers!

Maureen and George and Ringo 🔺

February 11, 1965

Maureen and Ringo on their way to join John and Cynthia Lennon in Spain, while John was filming How I Won the War. 4 October 1966

Interview with Maureen Cox, 1988

BY  ADMIN · PUBLISHED JANUARY 5, 2015 · UPDATED JUNE 29, 2020

Interview with Maureen Cox from Le Chroniqueur, a French magazine, in July of 1988. The interviewer is a French reporter named Maurice Devereux. I have included the original French text after the English translation.

Q: So let’s start at the beginning. How did you first meet Richy?

A: Well… (pauses) I first met him at the Cavern. I was dating Johnny Guitar at the time in the Hurricanes (You know) and Richy was just the drummer at the time. I don’t remember when he first asked me out on a date, but he did just after he left the Hurricanes and joined the Beatles. I was excited! Here I was a silly sixteen-year-old hairdresser dating the most popular drummer in Liverpool. Our first date was a little silly. (chuckles) We just walked around the block for a while, gossiping and talking because he had to go back in the Cavern and play again. After a couple of months, I began to realize that I was infatuated with him.

Q: You and Richy went to Greece with Paul [McCartney] and Jane [Asher] in 1963, right?

Paul, Jane, Maureen and Ringo

Q: How was that trip?

The newlyweds

Q: You attended a couple of studio sessions with him? He said that sometimes he would take you with him.

A: Yeah, I went to a couple of them with him. It was only because he asked me – not because I wanted to. I was so used to him coming home from the studio and me sitting up till the crack of dawn waiting for ’im. Going to his work would seem out of the ordinary (y’know), so I told him that if he wanted me to go, I would.

Q: What was it like to sit in the studio with John, Paul and George?

Linda and Maureen, watching Ringo at work.

Q: Yoko Ono was there too.

In bed in Abbey Road studios: Pattie Harrison, Mal Evans, Linda McCartney and Yoko Ono

Q: Were you there when Richy walked out?

A: No, but I was surprised when he came home so soon. He told me to pack my bags without giving me much of an explanation; but I could see a look of distress in his eyes. It was just painful. I fought with him for a while, I really did and I told him that it was foolish to go away so soon, but I could tell he didn’t really care at that point. I do remember him muttering something about Paul under his breath- something really dirty which made me believe that Paul and Richy had a row.

Q: Can you recall what Richy said?

A: They were all curse words. I don’t really want to repeat

Q: (interrupts) Just do the best you can.

A: (laughs and puts her hands to her face) Ohhh.. it’s easy for you to say.

Q: (Whistles) Wow! Were they that bad?

A: Well pretty much. I will never forget what he muttered as he folded his socks and put them in the suitcase. He said:”Paul is a freaking moron.”

Q: You used freaking instead of the “F” word?

Arriving in Sardinia, 1968 Q: Did you know why he left? Did he tell you?

A: From what I heard him tell Peter [Sellers] on the yacht, Paul wanted a certain drum pattern on a song and Richy was just fed up with his coaching him too much. He usually did something totally opposite of what Paul specifically told him to do, and Paul would get upset.

Q: What would you say is his greatest weakness?

A: His inferiority complex, his low self-esteem. I think, in a way,that was why he turned to drinkin’ so heavily. I think he used it as a cloth to hide his weakness. He would drink to get plastered to hide from it, but he knew that eventually he couldn’t. I remember he even tried to commit suicide once.

Q: Really?

A: Well, I shouldn’t say he did it intentionally because it took place when he was drunk (or at least I think so). He tried to cut his throat with his razor in the bathroom. He really frightened me at first, but I knew he wasn’t conscious of it. It was something that he wouldn’t have done if he was conscious and I knew this.

Q: Let’s turn to the positive. What was his greatest strength?

A: Ohhh… I would say it’s his personality. Richy is such a cheerful, peaceful man that it’s wonderful to talk with him. He has a wonderful sense of humor and can be very charming at time. My mother loved him when she first met him because he charmed the socks off of her. (Laughs) He was excellent with children – mostly because he’s usually gentle and playful. I used to comment to him that he still acted like a child, but he laughed it off.

Q: Was he passionate?

A: Oh yes, he could be very passionate when he wanted to be. Especially during meetings (According to the translator, in the article, it was ”sex” not meetings). He could be extremely passionate then.

Q: I noticed you haven’t mentioned John yet? What about him?

George Harrison, Julian Lennon, Maureen Starkey Tigrett and Ringo Starr backstage at the Royal Albert Hall for The Natural Law Party, 1992

Maureen “Mo” Starkey Tigrett, born Mary Cox, (4 August 1946 – 30 December 1994) was a hairdresser from Liverpool, England, best known as the first wife of the Beatles’ drummer, Ringo Starr. They divorced in 1975 after ten years of marriage. She lived with Isaac Tigrett from 1976 and eventually married him in 1989. Maureen died at home of leukaemia on 30 December 1994, after receiving treatment at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. She had three children with Ringo: sons Zak and Jason and daughter Lee, and one daughter with Tigrett, Augusta. Her four children, her mother, her then-husband Isaac Tigrett and her ex-husband Ringo Starr were at her bedside when she died. Paul McCartney’s song “Little Willow” on the 1997 Flaming Pie album was for Maureen and dedicated to her children.

Original French text:

Q : Alors, commençons par le commencement. Comment avez-vous rencontré Richy pour la première fois ?

Maureen : Eh bien… (Un temps) Je l’ai rencontré pour la première fois au Cavern. Je sortais avec Johnny Guitar des Hurricanes à cette époque (vous savez), et alors Richy n’en était que le batteur. Je ne me souviens pas quand il m’a demandée de sortir avec lui pour la première fois, mais je sais qu’il l’a fait juste après qu’il ait quitté The Hurricanes et rejoint les Beatles. J’étais excitée ! J’étais alors une coiffeuse de seize ans écervelée qui sortait avec le batteur le plus célèbre de Liverpool. Notre premier rendez-vous était un peu gnangnan (rires). On a juste tourné autour du bâtiment pendant un petit moment, à papoter, parce qu’il devait retourner au Cavern pour y rejouer. Après quelques mois, j’ai commencé à me rendre compte que je m’étais vraiment amourachée de lui.

Q : Vous et Richy êtes partis en Grèce avec Paul McCartney et Jane Asher en 1963, c’est ça ?

Maureen : Oui, en effet.

Q : Comment était le séjour ?

Maureen : C’était excellent. Je crois que c’était mon premier voyage à l’extérieur du pays et j’étais tellement heureuse quand Richy m’a demandée d’y aller avec lui. J’étais un peu nerveuse, parce qu’il y avait aussi Paul et sa petite amie avec nous, mais une fois là-bas je me suis détendue. Paul est une personne tellement gentille et sincère, je me suis bien amusée avec lui. J’ai aussi connu Jane pendant le séjour. Quand Paul et Richy faisaient les idiots, Jane et moi parlions un peu. C’est une personne tellement intelligente, et j’ai pensé que c’était un couple étrange au départ. Paul est un gars si sûr de lui (vous savez), il sait ce qu’il veut, et Jane est comme ça aussi. Je me suis souvent demandée comment ils avaient fait pour rester ensemble autant de temps (vous savez). Richy n’est pas sûr de lui du tout. Il est plutôt du genre décontracté et tranquille, certaines personnes pourraient se moquer de lui en le traitant de pigeon. Il avait ce complexe d’infériorité qui le tracassait. Je ne saurais pas comment le décrire. Il veut que je le rassure sans cesse, que je lui dise que je l’aime, car il prend peur facilement. Quand on était tous les deux allongés sur le lit, il me serrait fort contre lui et me disait : “Est-ce que tu m’aimes vraiment ?”, et je devais tout le temps le rassurer, lui dire que je l’aime, que je tenais à lui, et je pense qu’il était très heureux de m’entendre lui dire ça, il avait tellement peur que je ne l’aime pas.

Q : Vous avez assisté à quelques séances d’enregistrements avec lui ? Il a dit que quelques fois il vous prenait avec lui.

Maureen : Oui, j’y suis allée à quelques-unes avec lui. C’était seulement parce qu’il me le demandait, et pas parce que je le voulais. J’étais tellement habituée à attendre qu’il revienne du studio, à rester debout jusqu’à l’aube. L’accompagner à son travail me sortait de l’ordinaire (vous savez), mais je lui ai dit que s’il voulait que je vienne, je viendrais.

Q : Comment c’était d’être assise dans le studio avec John, Paul et George ?

Maureen : C’était comme regarder un groupe d’acteurs tourner la scène d’un film. (rires) Je m’asseyais avec une tasse de café et les regardais pendant un moment ou bien je discutais avec Linda McCartney ou Mal Evans. Quand je les regardais, je me disais toujours “voilà donc ce qu’ils ont fait ces six dernières années !” (rires) J’avais parfois l’impression d’être une mouche sur le mur qui les espionnait, mais je savais que j’étais alors la mouche la plus chanceuse du monde. Pattie Harrison était parfois là, mais elle repartait toujours tôt.

Q : Yoko Ono y était aussi.

Maureen : Je l’ai toujours trouvée étrange. Ce que je veux dire, c’est qu’elle interrompait toujours les gars alors qu’ils travaillaient ou faisaient des choses bizarres sans raison aucune. J’étais là quand John a amené le lit, et dit quelque chose à propos de Yoko qu’il voulait auprès d’elle. J’ai demandé à Richy ce qu’il en pensait, mais il a juste secoué la tête en guise de désapprobation. Je me demandais souvent comment ils faisaient pour s’entendre tous avec elle. Même Richy, quand il rentrait à la maison, me racontait toutes ces histoires bizarres à son sujet. Il m’a un jour racontée comment elle gémissait dans le micro de John alors qu’ils enregistraient une chanson et comment les deux s’embrassaient ouvertement pendant les prises. Je l’ai toujours évitée dans le studio pour toutes ces raisons. Elle était tout simplement trop étrange pour moi.

Q : Etiez-vous là quand Richy a abandonné le groupe ?

Maureen : Non, mais j’étais surprise qu’il revienne si tôt. Il m’a juste dit de faire mes valises sans me donner de plus amples explications ; mais je pouvais voir une lueur de détresse dans ses yeux. C’était vraiment douloureux pour moi. Je lui ai tenu tête pendant un moment, en lui disant que c’était stupide de partir si tôt, mais à ce moment-là, il n’en avait strictement rien à faire. Je me souviens de lui en train de marmonner quelque chose à propos de Paul dans sa barbe, quelque chose de très grossier qui m’a fait deviner que Paul et Richy s’étaient engueulés.

Q : Vous vous souvenez de ce que Richy a dit ?

Maureen : C’étaient vraiment des mots crus. Je n’ai pas envie de les répéter.

Q : (l’interrompant) Faites seulement du mieux que vous pouvez.

Maureen : (rit et passe une main sur son visage) Oooh… C’est facile à dire pour vous.

Q : (siffle) Wow ! Ils étaient si grossiers que ça ?

Maureen : Assez, oui. Je n’oublierai jamais ce qu’il a marmonné alors qu’il pliait ses chaussettes et les mettait dans sa valise. Il a dit : “Paul est un foutu crétin”.

Q : Vous avez utilisé le mot “foutu” au lieu de l’autre qui commence aussi par un F ?

Maureen : (rit) Oui, c’est ce que j’ai fait. Il a mis tellement de rage dans ce mot que ça m’a choquée de l’entendre dire ça, parce que d’habitude il n’est pas comme ça.

Q : Savez-vous pourquoi il est parti ? Vous l’a-t-il expliqué ?

Maureen : D’après ce que j’ai entendu de sa conversation avec Peter Sellers sur le yacht, Paul voulait un certain type de son de batterie sur la chanson et Richy en avait seulement assez qu’il lui dise tout le temps ce qu’il avait à faire. Il a fait exprès de faire l’exact opposé de ce que Paul avait spécifiquement demandé, ce qui l’a rendu furieux.

Q : D’après vous, quelle est sa plus grande faiblesse ?

Maureen : Son complexe d’infériorité, sa mauvaise estime de lui-même. Je pense que c’est en partie ça qui l’a poussé à boire tant. D’après moi ce devait être une façade pour cacher sa faiblesse. Il buvait dans l’espoir de la dissimuler, mais il finissait toujours par se rendre compte qu’il n’y arrivait pas. Je me souviens même qu’un jour il a fait une tentative de suicide.

Q : Vraiment ?

Maureen : Eh bien, je ne devrais pas dire qu’il l’a fait intentionnellement parce que ça s’est passé alors qu’il était soûl (ou du moins je le crois). Il a essayé de se trancher la gorge avec son rasoir dans la salle de bains. Il m’a vraiment fait peur au début, mais je savais qu’il n’était pas conscient de ce qu’il faisait. C’est quelque chose qu’il n’aurait jamais fait s’il avait eu toute sa tête et je le savais.

Q : Parlons de ses points positifs. Quelle était sa plus grande qualité ?

Maureen : Ooh… Je dirais que c’est sa personnalité. Richy est quelqu’un de tellement joyeux et placide, c’est superbe de parler avec lui. Il a beaucoup d’humour et peut être tout à fait charmant en même temps. Ma mère l’a adoré la première fois qu’elle l’a rencontré, parce qu’il la totalement charmée. (rires) Il était super avec les enfants, surtout parce qu’il est de nature douce et joueuse. Je lui disais souvent qu’il se comportait comme un enfant, mais il en riait.

Q : Etait-il passionné ?

Maureen : Oh oui, il pouvait être très passionné quand il le voulait. Surtout durant les rencontres (d’après le traducteur, dans l’article, c’était “sexe” et non “rencontres”). Il pouvait alors être très passionné.

Q : Je constate que vous n’avez pas encore parlé de John ? Que diriez-vous de lui ?

Maureen : John est la personne la plus drôle que vous auriez jamais rencontrée. Vous ne pouviez jamais savoir à quand il était sérieux. C’était John !

By Stefan Kyriazis, Arts Editor 

17:17, Sun, Jul 18, 2021 Updated: 17:35, Sun, Jul 18, 2021

RINGO STARR has been happily married to Barbara Bach since 1981, but what happened to his first wife, Maureen Starkey, the mother of his three children? She never spoke to the press throughout her whole life except for one rare and revealing interview.

This weekend marks the anniversary of Ringo's divorce from Maureen in 1975 after ten years of marriage and three children. It had started out as a romantic fairytale outside Liverpool's Cavern club. Beatles manages Brian Epstein once said: "It makes you feel secure just looking at the two of them." It all ended in infidelities and wrangles over money. Frank Sinatra famously reworked the song The Lady Is A Tramp for Maureen, singing it with new lyrics, “She married Ringo, and she could have had Paul. That's why the lady is a champ.” It was a playful joke for her 1968 birthday, but a few years later Maureen would actually have an affair with another Beatle, George Harrison.

Ringo met Maureen in 1963 when she was just 16 and already dating Hurricanes star Johnny Guitar. Ringo, real name Richard Starkey, was the band's drummer at the time and smitten with the brunette young hairdresser.

When he left the Hurricanes to join The Beatles he asked if he could drive Maureen home and she agreed but said he had to take her friend home too. This continued for six weeks before Ringo asked her out on a solo date.

They quietly dated as The Beatles fame suddenly exploded, but Maureen's pregnancy in January 1965 forced a quick February wedding. Marriage was viewed at the time as career suicide for teen idols but Ringo didn't care.

He later said: "All this stuff about drink milk and not get married... Well, I’ve always been the marrying type. Anyway, I was rich already so it didn’t matter."

At the press conference during their weekend honeymoon in Hove, Maureen declared she was not interested in speaking to the press, and never broke that rule for decades until 1988.

The couple were interviewed together in 1968 at their Weybridge mansion, Sunny Heights – the one with the infamous pub above the garage, named the Flying Cow.

Journalist Maureen Cleave said of Maureen: "She doesn’t talk much but what she does say is sensible. She adores him and calls him Richie. They always sit very close, side by side, and Ringo always lights two cigarettes simultaneously, one for her and one for him."

Ringo told Cleave: "Her place is with me. I own her, of course. When I married her, her parents signed her over to me. That just knocked me out; she’s still a minor you see. 

"When you’re married it’s not like when you’re courting. You both become different people because you get to know each other so well. She can shout at me now without opening her mouth - that’s being married."

Three children quickly followed. Zak was born in September 1965, followed by Jason in 1967 and daughter Lee in 1970.

Throughout the rest of the 1960s, Maureen stayed at home. Plans for her to open a chain of hairdressers were shelved as she raised their children and personally answered Ringo's fanmail.

While the band toured or spent all their time in recording studios, Maureen became friends with Paul's girlfriend Jane Asher, John Lennon's wife Cynthia and George's partner Cynthia.

During the famous group 1968 trip to the Rishikesh in India, the women spent all their time together while the band was with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

By 1969, constant infighting was tearing the band apart. In that unique 1988 interview with French magazine Le Chronicleur, Maureen remembered the impact Yoko Ono had on the band and Ringo's fury at Paul.

She said of Yoko: "I always thought her strange. I mean she would always interrupt the lads when they were working or do strange things without any reason whatsoever. I was there when John brought the bed, and said something about wanting Yoko to be there. I asked Richy about this and he just shook his head in disbelief. I often wondered how they all put up with her. Even Richy would come home and tell me all these strange stories about her. He once told me about her moaning into John’s microphone while they were recording a song and how the two of them would make-out during takes. I always avoided her in the studio for those reasons. She was just too strange for me."

During the 1968 recording sessions for The White Album, Ringo quit the band and came home and told Maureen they were leaving for Sardinia.

She recalled in 1988: "He told me to pack my bags without giving me much of an explanation, but I could see a look of distress in his eyes. It was just painful. I fought with him for a while, I really did and I told him that it was foolish to go away so soon, but I could tell he didn’t really care at that point. I do remember him muttering something about Paul under his breath- something really dirty which made me believe that Paul and Richy had a row."

Pushed to reveal what Ringo had said, Maureen added: "I will never forget what he muttered as he folded his socks and put them in the suitcase. He said, 'Paul is a f***ing moron.”

Ringo eventually rejoined the band, but the end was inevitable the following year (although not announced until July 1970).

The Starkey marriage was in similar distress, exacerbated by Ringo’s infidelities and drinking. IN 1995, Ringo told The Independent, he had been "a drunk, a wife-beater and an absent father."

Meanwhile, another Beatle had developed strong feelings for Maureen. During a visit to their house, George Harrison declared his love and they began a relationship which was eventually exposed when George’s wife Patti told Ringo she had found the pair in bed. 

The marriage staggered on for a few more years until Ringo’s affair with American model Nancy Lee Adams precipitated divorce in 1975. George and Patti would also divorce two years later.

Looking back in 1988, Maureen painted an intimate picture of Ringo: "Richy isn’t assertive at all. He’s pretty laid-back and gentle - some people could call him a pushover. He has this inferiority complex about him. I don’t know how to describe it. He just wants me to constantly reassure him that I love him because he gets afraid. We would be lying in bed and he would hold me close to him and say, 'Do you really love me?' I would have to constantly reassure him that I did love him, that I did care for him; and I think he was really pleased to hear me say that to him. He was so afraid that I might not love him."

On the positive side, she added: "Richy is such a cheerful, peaceful man that it’s wonderful to talk with him. He has a wonderful sense of humor and can be very charming at times. My mother loved him when she first met him because he charmed the socks off of her. He was excellent with children - mostly because he’s usually gentle and playful. I used to comment to him that he still acted like a child, but he laughed it off."

After the divorce,  Maureen started a relationship in 1976 with entrepreneur Isaac Tigrett, who founded the Hard Rock Cafe chain. They married in 1989 and had one daughter, Augusta.

Apart from that rare French interview in 1988, Maureen maintained her silence with the press throughout her life, enjoying the trappings of wealth but avoiding the limelight.

She died at home of leukaemia on 30 December 1994.  All four of her children, her mother Florence, husband Isaac and ex-husband Ringo were at her bedside.

Photo of Maureen by Pattie Boyd

By Amber Morgan | Edited By Maggie Donahue

Published January 1, 2025

A former hairdresser, Maureen Starkey was married to Ringo Starr for 10 years before they divorced amid Starr's substance abuse — and Starkey's affair with George Harrison.

PA Images / Alamy Stock PhotoMaureen Starkey with Ringo Starr, the drummer of the Beatles.

Maureen Starkey was a key figure in the Beatles’ history. As Ringo Starr’s first wife, she bore witness not only to the Beatlemania era but also to the band’s breakup and its members’ various affairs and struggles with substance abuse. And in the 1970s, she played a major role in the band drama herself when she infamously had an affair with her husband’s bandmate, George Harrison.

Tragically, Maureen Starkey died from leukemia in 1994 at the age of 47. But while much of her life is a mystery, her legacy remains inextricably tied to the Beatles’ story.

The Early Life Of Maureen Starkey And Her Journey To Becoming The Wife Of A Beatle

Born in 1946 in Liverpool, England, Mary “Maureen” Cox had a reputation for being something of a wild child. She left convent school as a teenager to become a hairdresser at Ashley du Pre and changed her name to Maureen, encouraging people to call her by her nickname “Mo.”

During this time, Maureen began to explore Liverpool’s bustling music scene. She was already dating Hurricanes musician Johnny Guitar when she met the Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr at the Cavern Club when she was 16. Ringo asked her to dance — and the rest is history.

“She was a fan whose dream had come true,” Pattie Boyd, the former wife of George Harrison, wrote in her book Wonderful Tonight. “She had started out as one of the hundreds of teenage girls who queued day after day at the Cavern to get close to the front of the stage for the best possible view of the Beatles and in hope that they might catch the eye of one. Every fan had a favorite, and Ringo was hers.” 

Their relationship took off from there, and soon Maureen was meeting the rest of the bandmates and traveling with the crew around the world. Before long, Maureen was pregnant with Ringo’s child. The pair married in February 1965 at the Caxton Hall registry office in London. 

But while it seemed like Maureen Starkey was living a dream come true, her relationship with the Beatles drummer was a rocky one.

Smith Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoRingo Starr and Maureen Cox on their wedding day in 1965.

An Exciting But Turbulent Life In The Beatles’ Inner Circle

Maureen Starkey gave birth to Zak Starkey on Sept. 13, 1965, and before long, the couple welcomed two more children: Jason and Lee Starkey. As the Beatles skyrocketed to superstardom,the Starkey family lived a life of luxury, moving from mansion to luxurious mansion in the United Kingdom.

In the early days of Maureen and Ringo Starr’s relationship, Maureen preferred to stay out of the spotlight. She mostly avoided the press, choosing instead to spend her days raising the children and answering Ringo’s fan mail.

She also accompanied the Beatles crew to India in 1968. There, Maureen Starkey bonded with the wives and girlfriends of the other Beatles members as they swapped stories about what each of their lives was like in the spotlight. 

But behind the scenes, Maureen and Ringo were having marital troubles.

“He has this inferiority complex about ‘im,” Maureen Starkey said of Ringo in a rare 1988 interview with Le Chroniqueur. “He just wants me to constantly reassure ‘im that I love him because he gets afraid. We would be lying in bed and he would hold me close to him and say, ‘Do you really love me?’ I would have to constantly reassure him that I did love him, that I did care for him; and I think he was really pleased to hear me say that to ‘im. He was so afraid that I might not love him.”

Keystone Press / Alamy Stock PhotoMaureen Starkey and Ringo Starr at the hospital with their newborn son, Jason Starkey.

Life abruptly changed for Maureen Starkey when the Beatles separated in 1970. Ringo Starr took the loss hard, turning to alcohol to cope and reportedly abusing his wife. Ringo himself later admitted he was “a drunk, a wife-beater, and an absent father,” according to a 1995 Independent article.

Before long, Maureen found solace in the arms of a different Beatle: George Harrison.

Maureen Starkey’s Separation From Ringo Starr

During the 1970s, Maureen Starkey began an affair with her husband’s bandmate George Harrison, often visiting George at the home he shared with his wife Pattie and allegedly sneaking around with him during the Beatles’ recording sessions.

As reported in Chris O’Dell’s memoir Miss O’Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved, George eventually confessed to the affair at a dinner party at the Starkeys’ house, telling the drummer, “You know, Ringo, I’m in love with your wife.” 

Ringo responded: “Better you than someone we don’t know.” 

In the end, it was Ringo’s own affair with model Nancy Lee Andrews that brought the struggling marriage to an end. They divorced in 1975 after 10 years of marriage.

Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock PhotoRingo Starr and Maureen Starkey on their way to France to attend the 21st Cannes Film Festival in May 1968.

Life Away From The Beatles

After the divorce, Maureen Starkey fell into a depression. She was reportedly so distraught that at one point, she drove a motorbike into a brick wall at full speed in an attempted suicide. Fortunately, she survived with minor injuries.

After this, Maureen largely fell off the radar until the 1980s, when she met Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues founder Isaac Tigrett. The two married in 1989 and had a daughter, Augusta. 

Life seemed to return to normal for Maureen Starkey Tigrett. She was living between the United Kingdom and United States with her new husband and family. 

Then, in 1994, Maureen collapsed at the opening ceremony of the House of Blues in Los Angeles. She was eventually diagnosed with leukemia.

Maureen fought the illness as long as she could, with her son Zak even donating bone marrow as part of her treatment. Sadly, she contracted a fungal infection and, despite desperate attempts to save her life, Maureen Starkey Tigrett died at age 47 on Dec. 30, 1994, surrounded by her children, husband, and ex-husband Ringo Starr. 

Following her death, Paul McCartney wrote the song “Little Willow” in her memory. Today, she is remembered as a leading lady in the Beatles’ early history.