Maureen Starkey

Maureen was born Mary Cox on 4 August 1946. A convent-educated Liverpool girl, she became a manicurist’s assistant then joined Ashley Du Pre’s hairdressing salon as an assistant hairdresser.

A Cavern regular, she once went out with Johnny ‘Guitar’ Byrne of Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. Ringo was drummer with the group. Three weeks after he joined The Beatles he dated Maureen. He spotted her queuing up outside the Cavern for a lunchtime session and started chatting to her, asking if she would come out with him after a Cavern gig the following night.

She told him her parents insisted on her being at home by 11.50 p.m. at the latest, so they arranged to go for a day out together. They went to the park, the pictures, had some drinks in the Pink Parrot Club and then went to the Blue Angel.

Although Maureen became his girl-friend, she saw little of him for the first six months, due to his hectic schedule.

By late 1964 with Ringo based in London and Maureen in Liverpool, Ringo was dating Vicki Hodge, the model. On 1 December he was taken to University College Hospital to have his tonsils out. Maureen decided to take matters into her own hands, caught the train to London and visited Ringo in hospital, taking him some ice cream. She then spent Christmas with him and by mid-January was pregnant. During a visit to the Ad Lib Club one evening, a slightly tipsy Ringo went down on his knees at 3.00 a.m. to propose. Maureen was eighteen years old and Ringo was 24.

The couple were married at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on 11 February 1965 at a simple ceremony which took place at 8.00 a.m. - the hall had opened two hours early to avoid the expected crowds.

Brian Epstein acted as Best Man and in attendance were Ringo’s mother and stepfather. Maureen’s mother and father, John and Cynthia and George Harrison, who arrived on a bicycle. Paul was on holiday at the time. The wedding breakfast took place at Brian’s house and he had also arranged for the couple to have a short honeymoon at 2 Princes Crescent, Hove, Sussex, the home of The Beatles solicitor David Jacobs.

Ringo and Maureen moved into a Montague Square flat but when their first son Zak was born on 13 September 1965, Ringo bought a house, Sunny Heights, in Weybridge. Their second son Jason was born on 19 August 1967 and their daughter Lee on 17 November 1970.

The marriage had seemed a strong one until George and Pattie Harrison were invited to dinner one evening. George suddenly announced that he was madly in love with Maureen. A furious Ringo strode out, a tearful Pattie locked herself in the bathroom and a red-faced Maureen was lost for words. In the aftermath of this declaration it was rumoured that George and Maureen had a brief affair.

When George was asked, ‘How could you, with your best friend’s wife?’ he replied, ‘Incest, I guess'.

The marriage never survived the scandal and the couple gradually grew apart with Ringo drinking heavily and visiting nightclubs in the company of models. Eventually, they were divorced on 17 July 1975 with Ringo admitting to adultery with American actress Nancy Andrews.

Maureen and Ringo remained friends and Ringo was very generous, not only immediately settling £500,000 on her but later buying her a £250,000 house in Little Venice and continuing with financial support for many years to come.

On 27 May 1989, in Monte Carlo, Maureen eventually remarried. Her second husband was her long-time boyfriend, millionaire Isaac Tigrett of the famous Hard Rock Cafe. Among the wedding guests were Cynthia Lennon, Sting and Dan Ackroyd.

The couple, who had been together for fourteen years and had a child, Augusta King, were married by Reverend Don Malloy, who had married Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

Copyright: Bill Harry, from 'The Beatles Encyclopedia', published by Virgin Publications.

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