Olivia Harrison
Olivia Harrison (born Olivia Trinidad Arias, 18 May 1948) is a Mexican author, film producer, and the widow of musician George Harrison.
Arias was a secretary at Dark Horse Records, where she met George Harrison in 1974. Arias gave birth to the couple’s son, musician Dhani Harrison, in August 1978. Olivia and George married in a private ceremony in September 1978 at the Henley-on-Thames Register Office in England.
Harrison attended Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach‘s wedding in 1981 without her wedding ring, giving rise to the mistaken speculation that her marriage to George was a hoax. In the early 1990s, along with the other Beatles’ wives Barbara Bach Starkey, Linda McCartney, and Yoko Ono, Harrison founded the Romanian Angel Appeal to provide aid to children living in devastation in Romania.
Harrison produced the memorial Concert For George in 2002 at London‘s Royal Albert Hall, which featured Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr, and her son, Dhani. Proceeds from the event were given to George’s Material World Charitable Foundation. Harrison’s video production received the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video in 2004. She wrote the introduction for the 2002 book I Me Mine and authored the book Concert for George: A Celebration of the Life of George Harrison in 2006.
Harrison appeared on-stage at Microsoft’s 1 June 2009, E3 press conference with Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr to promote the The Beatles: Rock Band video game.
She co-produced the Martin Scorsese film George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011), and appeared with Scorsese at Cannes in 2010 and in New York City in the summer of 2011 to promote the documentary. Harrison also co-authored (with Mark Holborn) and Scorese wrote the forward for the book Living in the Material World: George Harrison, released in 2011.
In 1999, George and Olivia were attacked by a deranged man who broke into their home. George went downstairs after hearing noises. Moments later, George returned, followed by his attacker, and was stabbed multiple times. Olivia attacked the assailant with a “heavy table lamp”, and the assailant turned on her. Later, they were both treated for their wounds at a hospital. The man was quoted as saying he was on a “mission sent by God”, and that the Beatles were “witches”.
