Ringo Starr: Beatles biopic got my first marriage wrong

Telegraph

06-07-2025

Ringo Starr has claimed the original script of a forthcoming Beatles biopic misrepresented his first marriage.
The drummer, who turns 85 this week, said he had to correct director Sam Mendes over the details of his sometimes tempestuous relationship with Maureen Starkey Tigrett, whom he wed in 1965.
'He had a writer – a very good writer, great reputation, and he wrote it great, but it had nothing to do with Maureen and I. That's not how we were,' Starr told The New York Times in a profile published to mark his birthday.
He added: 'I'd say, we would never do that. But he'll do what he's doing and I'll send him peace and love.'
Starr met Starkey Tigrett after she became a regular at the Cavern Club, the Liverpool venue where the Beatles honed their craft.
Often described as one of the band's original groupies, she was sometimes confronted by obsessive Beatles fans and was once attacked during a gig on Valentine's Day 1963.
In 1975, Starr is said to have demanded a divorce when he learnt she was having an affair with George Harrison.
According to Cynthia Lennon 's memoir, Starkey Tigrett was so upset she came close to killing herself by driving a motorbike into a brick wall.
Starr's life and marriage will now be dramatised in one of four Beatles biopics due to be released in April 2026, each following a different member of the band.
Starr will be played by Irish actor Barry Keoghan, while Harris Dickinson will star as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney and Joseph Quinn as Harrison.
The films are being written by Jack Thorne, who wrote Adolescence, Jez Butterworth, an award-winning playwright, and Peter Straughan, who co-wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Starr said he was still performing music at 84 because he loves doing it.
He said: 'When I first started my mother would come to the gigs. She would always say, 'You know, son, I always feel you're at your happiest when you're playing your drums.' So she noticed. And I do. I love to hit those buggers.'
Starr said he had first started drumming after he contracted tuberculosis at 13 and was sent to a Merseyside sanitarium to convalesce for two years.
One day, a music teacher appeared with tambourines, triangles and small drums for the bedridden children to play.
'It was like a craziness,' he said. 'I hit the drum and I only wanted from that moment to be a drummer, and that was what my aim was.'
Discussing his relationship with Starr, McCartney told The New York Times he was grateful to have one remaining bandmate to talk to.
'With John and George not here, I think we realise nothing lasts forever,' he said.
'So we grasp on to what we have now because we realise that it's very special. It's something hardly anyone else has.
'In fact, in our case, it's something no one else has. There's only me and Ringo, and we're the only people who can share those memories.'