Cynthia Lennon Said Mo Was ‘So Heartbroken’ to Split with the Beatles’ Drummer Ringo Starr

The Beatles’ Ringo Starr was married to his first wife for about a decade. According to Cynthia Lennon, though, Mo Starkey found the divorce difficult, even driving into a brick wall after learning about the drummer’s latest affair. 

What happened to Ringo Starr’s first wife Maureen?

He’s the songwriter behind “Octopus’s Garden,” and the drummer behind “Twist and Shout,” “Come Together,” and “Hey Jude.” Aside from creating music with the Beatles, Ringo Starr began a relationship with hairdresser Maureen Cox. 

The two were married in 1965, having their first child, Zak Richard Starkey, shortly after. According to Rare.US, “in 1967, Maureen would give birth to another son, Jason, and a daughter, Lee, in 1970.”

Primarily due to Starr’s affair, the couple officially ended their relationship in 1975. This wasn’t the preference of Mo Starkey, according to accounts from Cynthia Lennon.

Cynthia Lennon detailed the Ringo Starr and Mo Starkey breakup 

In her 2005 memoir, John Lennon’s ex-wife Cynthia Lennon detailed her relationship with the Beatles’ inner circle. That includes Maureen Starkey Tigrett, who Lennon referred to as “Mo.”

“When Mo and Ringo parted in 1974, she had been so heartbroken that she got on a motorbike and drove it straight into a brick wall, badly injuring herself,” Lennon wrote. “She had been in love with him since she was fifteen and his public appearances with his new girlfriend, American actress Nancy Andrews, had devastated her.”

“Because of the injuries she’d received in the motorbike accident she had plastic surgery on her face and was delighted with the result, which she felt made her look better than she had before,” she noted. 

“Gradually she’d begun to get over Ringo, and she had a brief fling with George Harrison before she began to see Isaac Tigrett, millionaire owner of the Hard Rock Cafe chain,” Lennon wrote.

She later married Isaac Tigrett, changing her legal name to Maureen Starkey Tigrett. Even if she didn’t remain friends with Ringo Starr, the hairdresser had a close relationship with Cynthia Lennon. In the same memoir, Lennon said she was with Tigrett when she learned of John Lennon’s death. 

Is Ringo Starr married?

In 1981, the drummer married his second wife Barbara Bach. The American actor and model met Starr in 1980 on the set of Caveman. The two have been together ever since, sometimes commenting on their relationship publicly.

“We both had the same philosophy, neither one ever wanting to marry again,” Bach said during a Playboy interview (via People). “Richard already has three children, aged 10 to 13. Quite honestly, I never thought I’d be so lucky, to fall so much in love that I’d want to do the whole thing over. My family was shocked.”