Did you know Mick Fleetwood was the brother-in-law of one of The Beatles?

11 September 2025, 10:07 | Updated: 11 September 2025, 10:11

The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac were actually related.

While they had plenty of ups and downs, during their time together The Beatles were as inseparable as family.

Mick Jagger called the Fab Four "the four-headed monster", and John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were like brothers.

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On the other hand, Fleetwood Mac hosted much more tangled relationships, with the pairing and stormy breakups of members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks on one side, and John and Christine McVie on the other.

But it's also worth noting that at one point in time, one of The Beatles was actually related to one of Fleetwood Mac.

For a period of time in the 1970s, George Harrison and Mick Fleetwood were once brothers. Well, brothers-in-law, anyway.

How did that one work out?

Well, in 1966, George Harrison married Pattie Boyd, who he had met on the set of classic movie A Hard Day's Night.

They separated in 1974 and eventually divorced in 1977. After the split, Harrison married Olivia Arias, with whom he had a son, Dhani. They remained married until Harrison died in 2001. Meanwhile, Pattir went on to marry Harrison's friend Eric Clapton in 1979.

Meanwhile, in 1970, Mick Fleetwood married Jenny Boyd, Pattie's younger sister.

They too had their ups and downs, divorcing in 1976. They actually remarried a lear later, before divorcing a second and final time in 1978. Mick went on to marry twice more, as did Jenny.

Walk a Thin Line

If you cross reference those dates, what that means is that between 1970 and 1976, and for a smidge of 1977, George Harrison and Mick Fleetwood were brothers-in-law.

As for how much they crossed paths when legally related, it's possible they spent some time together between 1970 and 1974, when George and Pattie were still actually together and Mick and Jenny were (generally) getting on

But it was actually a few years after both were divorced from the Boyd sisters that Mick and George collaborated, when Harrison played guitar on 'Walk a Thin Line' from Fleetwood's solo debut The Visitor.

That song, released as a single, was actually a new version of a song perviously recorded by Fleetwood Mac on 1979's Tusk album.