Ringo Starr has spent more than six decades in the public eye as the Beatles’ drummer, known for his peace-and-love message and his enduring marriage to Barbara Bach. Now at 86, he has opened up about the six people who meant the most to him in his life, a list that extends beyond his famous bandmates to include the woman who knew him before fame and the father who was often absent. Maureen Cox was Ringo’s first great love, entering his life in the early 1960s when she was a young hairdresser around the Cavern Club in Liverpool. She knew him as Richard Starkey, before Beatlemania transformed him into a global superstar.
The two began dating while he was still playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and she remained by his side after he joined the Beatles in 1962. Ringo proposed at London’s Ad Lib Club in 1965, and the couple married at Caxton Hall on February 11th of that year. They had three children together: Zak, Jason, and Lee. Fatherhood gave Ringo something outside the madness of the Beatles, and during the band’s 1968 trip to India, his family was among the reasons he returned home early.
Their marriage was not a fairy tale. Infidelity, drinking, and personal struggles placed serious strain on the relationship, and the couple separated. The divorce was finalized in 1975. There were also painful chapters, including a complicated situation involving George Harrison.
Years later, their story took a moving turn. In 1994, Maureen was diagnosed with leukemia. Though she and Ringo had been divorced for nearly two decades, he visited her during her final days. She died in December 1994 at age 47.
Their relationship had ended, but the history they shared could not be erased. She was there before the fame, during the height of Beatlemania, and through the birth of their children. Barbara Bach represented something different in Ringo’s life. They met in 1980 on the set of the film Caveman, where Barbara was an established actress known internationally for her role as a Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me.
She already understood the pressure of living with fame, so she was not discovering him as a Beatle for the first time. The relationship moved quickly. Ringo and Barbara married on April 27th, 1981, at London’s Marylebone Register Office, just months after meeting. Both eventually became sober, and they have spoken publicly about how important that decision was to their life together.
They built a quieter, healthier routine around each other, a stability that became the defining characteristic of their marriage. Ringo has described their relationship in terms of companionship. They travel together, work on projects together, and have remained closely connected through decades in the public eye. Barbara appeared in his music video for Give Peace a Chance and has supported his All-Starr Band career.
Ringo has credited her with helping him become a better version of himself. She met him after the chaos of Beatlemania had already happened, and she chose to stay. They have now been married for more than four decades. John Lennon helped make Ringo feel he belonged in the Beatles.
When Ringo joined the group in 1962, he was stepping into a band with a tight friendship and strong identity. John could have treated the new drummer as an outsider, but instead Ringo quickly became part of the inner circle. Their connection was built around humor, and Ringo was not interested in competing with John or trying to dominate a room. The two experienced the impossibility of the Beatles together, recording albums, touring the world, and watching their private lives disappear under constant public attention.
After the Beatles broke up, John contributed the song I’m the Greatest to Ringo’s 1973 album Ringo, and Ringo remained one of the people John trusted enough to stay in contact with. In December 1980, John was murdered outside his home in New York. Ringo later spoke about how devastating the loss was. He never turned their friendship into a grand mythology, remembering John instead as a person, a complicated and funny man.
They had gone from young musicians in Liverpool to members of the most famous band in history, and beneath all the fame, they retained the familiarity of two people who had known each other before the world was watching. George Harrison knew Ringo through almost every version of his adult life. Both came from Liverpool’s music scene, and George was one of the people who genuinely appreciated Ringo’s personality rather than just his role as drummer. Their connection grew from a shared sense of humor and a familiarity that came from years of knowing each other’s habits and weaknesses.
George was a major supporter of Ringo’s solo career, contributing to his 1973 album alongside John and Paul. Their friendship survived a complicated chapter when George became involved with Maureen Cox during Ringo’s troubled marriage to her. The situation deeply complicated the relationships surrounding all three of them, and yet the friendship somehow survived. When George became seriously ill in November 2001, Ringo traveled to see him along with Barbara.
It was one of the last times the two friends saw each other. George died on November 29th, 2001, at age 58. Ringo had already lost John two decades earlier, and the loss was devastating. He has continued to speak about George with affection, remembering the humor, the music, and the friendship they shared.
Paul McCartney and Ringo spent some of the most extraordinary years of their lives side by side. They met through Liverpool’s music scene before either could have imagined what they would become. Paul was intensely focused on the music, while Ringo brought a looseness and warmth that helped keep the atmosphere from becoming completely consumed by pressure. Paul recognized Ringo’s strength as a drummer who served the song rather than overwhelming it.
The friendship survived the Beatles’ breakup, though there were disagreements, harsh words, and periods when they were not particularly close. They continued working together after the band ended, with Paul contributing to Ringo’s solo records and Ringo appearing on Paul’s projects. In 1973, Paul contributed the song Six O’Clock to Ringo’s album, which also included contributions from John and George. After John’s murder in 1980 and George’s death in 2001, Paul and Ringo became the last surviving members of the group.
That brought a different dimension to their relationship. They were the only two people alive who could fully understand what it had been like to stand inside the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. In later years, their friendship became noticeably warmer and more public. Ringo has described Paul as his brother.
Richard Starkey Senior was one of the most important people in Ringo’s early life, even though he was not always present in it. He married Elsie Gleave, and together they had their only child, Richard Starkey Jr. The family lived in the Dingle area of Liverpool. When Ringo was very young, his parents separated, and his father largely disappeared from his everyday life.
Ringo grew up primarily with his mother, Elsie, who became the central figure in his childhood. His father missed much of Ringo’s difficult early years, including the serious illnesses that kept the young boy in hospital for long periods. Ringo suffered from tuberculosis as a child. Yet years later, he spoke about his father with a mixture of affection, distance, and understanding rather than simple resentment.
As Ringo became famous, Richard Senior remained connected to the family, and eventually the two men rebuilt a relationship. Becoming an adult allowed Ringo to understand the circumstances surrounding his parents’ separation from a different perspective. Richard Senior had given him his name, his roots, and a connection to the life that existed before fame. Richard Starkey Senior died in 1967 while Ringo was at the height of Beatlemania.
The contrast captures something important about their relationship. Richard Senior may not have been present for every childhood milestone, but he remained part of the man Ringo became. Their story was shaped as much by absence as by affection. Ringo’s love for his father was not the uncomplicated love of a son who had been given everything he needed.
It was the love of someone who had grown old enough to understand that a person’s importance in your life is not always measured by how often they were physically there.
