Emotional and detailed letters from Eric Clapton to Pattie Boyd are to be auctioned. The musician wrote these declarations of love while Boyd was still married to George Harrison. The lyrics shed light on one of rock’s most famous love triangles.
A number of the model’s possessions are scheduled to be auctioned from March 8th to March 21st. Among them is a letter from 1970 in which Clapton asks Boyd: “What I want to ask you is whether you still love your husband or whether you have another lover? All these questions are very rude, I know, but if you still feel something for me, you have to tell me!”
“I thought the letter was from a strange fan”
Speaking to Christie’s auction house, Boyd says she initially assumed the letter was fan mail. The misunderstanding was only cleared up in a phone call with Clapton. Shortly afterwards he wrote further letters in which the guitarist poured out his heart to the model: “I listened to the wind, I watched the dark, brooding clouds, I scanned the earth beneath me for a sign, a gesture, but there is just silence. Why are you hesitating, am I a bad lover, am I ugly, am I too weak, too strong, do you know why? If you want me, take me, I’m yours. If you don’t want me, please break the spell that binds me. To tame a wild animal is a sin, to tame it is divine. My love is yours.”
The letters are estimated to sell for between £10,000 and £15,000.
The end of George Harrison and Pattie Boyd’s marriage
Boyd recounts her feelings at the time: “George and I were going through a bit of a delicate time together. With the Beatles there was this chaos and fear for the band, and George was dismissive. Then Eric kept coming to our house and asking me if I wanted to run away with him. Well, that was tempting, but I couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t right.” Boyd and the Beatles guitarist separated in 1974 because of his multiple infidelities. She and Clapton hardly saw each other until the middle of the decade, when they got back together and eventually married in 1979. They filed for divorce in 1989.
With the musician’s permission, numerous items from the “Love Triangle” relationships are now being sold. In addition to the letters, there are also postcards, song lyrics and photos up for auction. “I thought, why not just sell everything and let others enjoy it?” explains Boyd.