Eric Clapton's nickname for Pattie Boyd was Nell, Nelly or Nello, while she called him El. In the midst of a separation following Eric's dalliance with model Jenny McLean in early 1979, Pattie was staying with friends in Los Angeles when she was woken one morning by a message from Eric. In her autobiography, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me, Boyd revealed: Eric wanted me to marry him on Tuesday in Tucson, Arizona, just before the start of his next American tour. It was now Friday morning... I rang Eric and, having ascertained that Jenny McLean was no longer in the picture, said I would marry him. I was thrilled. How could I not be? The drink was a problem, but other than that he was wonderful: the most exciting, creative, talented, interesting person - and I was in love with him. But in the bottom of my heart I knew this wasn’t right... What I didn’t know until Roger Forrester confessed a few days after the wedding was how the whole thing had come about... Roger had bet Eric that he could get his photograph in the newspapers the following morning. Eric bet him ten thousand pounds that he couldn’t. So Roger went straight to the telephone and told Nigel Dempster, then gossip columnist on the Daily Mail, that Eric Clapton would be marrying Pattie Boyd on March 27 in Tucson, Arizona. By the time they woke up the next morning, the story, plus photograph, was emblazoned across the Daily Mail and the two went into a total panic. What to do? A few million people now knew about the wedding; the only person who didn’t was the bride. Hence the hasty phone call - and the desperation for an immediate answer...
The service was lovely and Eric looked wonderful. At the end the minister said, “I would like to give you Mr. and Mrs. Clapton,” and clapped, so everyone else did too... Eric and I had no sooner cut the cake than we were in the midst of a cake fight... Everyone was drunk and the whole thing turned into chaos. Not the traditional wedding but perfect rock ’n’ roll. I couldn’t have been happier, but there was no question of a honeymoon. The next day Eric’s tour began and he insisted on bringing me onstage and proudly introducing me as his wife, then singing “Wonderful Tonight” to me. It was touching and so joyous. The audience went wild. After Tucson they played Albuquerque, El Paso, and Dallas, and at each gig I stood in the wings, watched him, and felt so proud, happy, and in love. Then it all changed. The next stop was New Orleans, which I was really looking forward to, but Eric told me he wanted me to fly to Los Angeles, collect my luggage, and go home. I couldn’t understand it. We were having such a lovely time, why did he want to get rid of me? And then one of the roadies told me that Jenny McLean had checked into the hotel in New Orleans. Eric and I hadn’t even been married a week.
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