Maureen Starr

Maureen Starr,

Real name : Mary Cox but also known as Maureen Starkey was born on August 4th 1946 in Liverpool, the only child of Joseph Cox (Joe), a ship steward and Florence Barrett (Flo Cox).

She was six years younger than Ringo, whom she married on February 11th 1965. She was 18 at the time. Mary left school aged 16 and started her training at Ashley Du Pré (hair salon in Liverpool) to become a hairdresser. As the hairdressers did at the time, Mary changed her name for a more fashionable one : Maureen (which means, interestingly, in Irish, little Mary...). Maureen was a regular at the Cavern, where the Beatles first started. Each girl fancied a beatle, for Maureen it was Ringo (who joined the Beatles, replacing Pete Best, in 1962), even though she kissed Paul first as a dare. Ringo noticed Maureen's striking features : her beautiful big dark eyes (Ringo used to say they hypnotized him..), her bouffant black hair with a fringe, etc and asked her to dance. They began dating shortly after this, but Maureen was only his steady in Liverpool at first (when they first started dating, she was only 16...). It really was when she rushed to him in London to take care of him (he had his tonsils removed) that it became very serious. They married in 1965, and their first son, Zak Starkey (2nd beatle child, first one was Julian Lennon in 1963) was born on September 13th of the same year. In 1967, on August 19, came Jason Starkey and finally, on November 11th 1970 Maureen gave birth to a daughter, Lee Parkin Starkey. Maureen and Ringo sadly divorced in 1975, his drinking was becoming unbearable (he didn't know what to do with himself since the Beatles separation) and he started a relationship with an American model and photographer, Nancy Lee Andrews. Maureen had a short fling with George Harrison in 1973 (while the Harrisons and the Starrs were still married...). Maureen met Isaac Tigrett, founder of the Hard Rock Café and they married in 1989 in Monaco and had a daughter, Augusta King Tigrett in 1987 (she was already a grandmother to Zak Starkey's daughter, Tatia Jane (b.1985) back then).