In 1969, when The Beatles were parting ways, John Lennon told the band: “I’m breaking the group up. It feels good. It feels like a divorce.”

But that’s not the only public split Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and honorary fifth Beatle, George Martin, endured; all of the bandmates have been through divorces in their personal lives, too. In honor of the 32nd anniversary of Lennon’s tragic death on Dec. 8, 1980, we take a look back at the band’s divorces. Click through the slides below for more on their splits.

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  • George Harrison

    In 1966, lead guitarist George Harrison <a href=”http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yO1RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=V3QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7202,589474&dq=george+harrison+pattie+boyd+married&hl=en”>tied the knot </a>with model Pattie Boyd, whom he met while filming “A Hard Day’s Night.” By 1977, <a href=”http://books.google.com/books?id=per-tSQ745gC&pg=PA143&dq=1977+george+harrison+divorce&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NX_zT8PCEYmXrAGQ2fDqAw&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false” target=”_hplink”>the pair had divorced</a>, and <a href=”http://http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/books/review/Light.t.html” target=”_hplink”>Boyd later married</a> — and <a href=”http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-474705/Id-pray-Eric-pass-touch-Part-2-Pattie-Boyds-sensational-autobiography.html” target=”_hplink”>subsequently divorced </a>– Harrison’s good friend Eric Clapton.

  • John Lennon

    When Beatles singer, songwriter and guitarist John Lennon married <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/28/cynthia.lennon.book/”>college sweetheart</a> Cynthia Lennon (née Powell) in 1962, she was already <a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/oct/16/biography.johnlennon”>pregnant with the couple’s first child</a>. Six years later, Cynthia <a href=”http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_Rk-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=WUoMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3898,2492670&dq=cynthia+lennon+files+for+divorce&hl=en”>filed for divorce</a> after learning that Lennon was having an affair with Japanese artist Yoko Ono. Lennon was <a href=”http://seattletimes.com/html/movies/2003279869_lennon29.html”>married to Ono</a> until he was<a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/8/newsid_2536000/2536321.stm”> fatally shot </a>outside of his New York City home in 1980.

  • Paul McCartney

    Beatles singer, songwriter and bassist Paul McCartney <a href=”http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/12827984/ns/today-entertainment/t/mccartney-mills-announce-separation/#.UGTg6fmfGRk”>separated from his second wife</a>, Heather Mills, in 2006 after four years of marriage. Although the couple labeled their<a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/may/17/arts.artsnews”> parting “amicable,”</a> it soon proved to be anything but.

    The acrimony came to a boiling point in March 2008 when Mills reportedly <a href=”http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20184901,00.html”>poured water on the head</a> of McCartney’s divorce attorney. The Beatle’s estranged wife asked for <a href=”http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20186762,00.html”>$250 million</a> in the settlement, but ended up with <a href=”http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20186762,00.html”>$48.6 million</a> — less than a fifth of the amount she requested. In 2011, McCartney got remarried to <a href=”http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2011/10/10/paul_mccartney_marries_nancy_shevell_former_beatle_weds_american.html”>American trucking heiress Nancy Shevell</a>.

  • Ringo Starr

    Drummer Ringo Starr <a href=”http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nNFEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CLcMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2298,84426&dq=maureen+cox+ringo+divorce+1975&hl=en”>met his future wife</a>, Maureen Cox, in 1962 when she asked him for his autograph after a performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. The pair <a href=”http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5AEpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VNUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2328,1006432&dq=ringo+starr+maureen+wedding&hl=en”>tied the knot</a> in 1965 and were married for 10 years before <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/01/obituaries/ringo-starr-s-ex-wife-dies.html”>divorcing in 1975</a>. Starr later <a href=”http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210787,00.html”>married actress Barbara Bach</a> in 1981, whom he <a href=”http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20078665,00.html”>met on the set </a>of the movie “Caveman.”

  • George Martin

    The Beatles’ music producer, George Martin, wasn’t <em>officially</em> a member of the band, but he has often been referred to as <a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9224588/Fifth-Beatle-Sir-George-Martin-believes-EMI-break-up-the-worst-thing-music-has-ever-faced.html”>”the fifth Beatle” </a>because of his tremendous influence on both their <a href=”http://rockhall.com/inductees/george-martin/bio/”>success</a> and <a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/jun/30/books.guardianreview1″>sound</a>. In fact, he was the one to <a href=”(he signed the band in 1962 after they had been turned down by many other labels)”>sign the band </a>in 1962, after they had been <a href=”http://rockhall.com/inductees/george-martin/bio/”>turned down</a> by the other major record labels.

    Martin <a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/jun/30/books.guardianreview1″>tied the knot</a> with his first wife, Sheena Chisholm, in 1948, but the pair <a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/jun/30/books.guardianreview1″>split five years after </a>their second child was born. By 1966, he was onto <a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/jun/30/books.guardianreview1″>his second marriage</a> with a woman named Judy Lockhart Smith.

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