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Pattie Boyd became a defining face of London’s Swinging Sixties. The former model is also remembered for her complicated romantic history with George Harrison and Eric Clapton, as well as for being Harrison’s first wife. Throughout those years, her distinctive gap-toothed smile became one of her most recognizable features. After divorcing Clapton in the 1980s, Boyd largely stepped away from public life. When she appeared in later years, however, fans noticed that her teeth had changed: she had closed the gap that once helped define her look.
It wasn’t something she actively pursued. Instead, a dentist urged her to fill it in. She regretted it, though. “Years later, I thought ‘Oh what a mistake, I rather liked my gap’ … ” she told The Times in 2007. Even though it’s gone, fans still appreciate that she rocked the gap back in her modeling days, helping bring diversity into the fashion world. ” … I loved her natural gap. It made Pattie who she was and was just something more cute and special about her. She had a look where it parted herself away from the normal 60s image that every model had at that time,” an Instagram user argued in 2022.
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The change has prompted criticism from some Beatles fans on social media, though others continue to remember Boyd’s original smile fondly. “I thought the gap in her teeth was sexy!” one Reddit user wrote in defense in 2026. Boyd herself has said she misses the gap—and adjusting to changes in her appearance has involved more than her teeth.
Pattie Boyd has found peace in her changing looks
As a former model and cultural icon of the 1960s, Boyd has acknowledged that accepting the effects of aging has not always been simple. Her confidence comes and goes, but she has gradually become more comfortable with the process. “I still feel attractive. It sounds boastful, but I think I’m all right,” she wrote in her 2007 memoir, “Wonderful Tonight,” published in the U.K. as “Wonderful Today” (via The Guardian). In an interview with The Times, she also described the everyday insecurities that can surface as she gets older: “I just think, ‘Oh my God, are my arms good enough for this T-shirt?’” Boyd added, “See, I do love clothes — and clothes look good if you don’t look too old.”
Boyd’s early modeling career may have prepared her to view beauty in unconventional terms. She was drawn to the industry partly because she looked different and did not want to conform to traditional ideas of attractiveness. “When I started modelling in the late 50s, I did well because my image was slightly different. … I was lucky because magazines were ready to accept a new look,” she recalled in her memoir. After discovering fashion magazines as a teenager, Boyd identified with the fresh style emerging in the early 1960s. “These girls were young, fresh, and different. I wanted to be like them,” she wrote in “Wonderful Tonight,” contrasting them with the “stiff and sophisticated” models of the previous era.
That acceptance of individuality appears to have remained with Boyd as she grew older. Although embracing her changing appearance has sometimes been difficult, she has said she is increasingly at ease with herself. “I’ve become happier in my skin … I don’t mind ageing. I’m stable and quite a happy soul,” she wrote (via The Guardian).