He Loves Them Not, Not, Not
George Martin secured his place in music history when he signed the Beatles after all other producers and labels in London refused. But the really surprising tidbit about the life of the so-called Fifth Beatle might be that he ran off with his secretary just as the band was starting to become a worldwide phenomenon, taking his money and attention with him.
There’s a blistering piece in the UK’s Daily Mail featuring an interview with Alexis Martin, George’s first child from his first marriage to Sheena whom he left after 14 years and two children (they had a son, Greg). She claims Marin’s will treats her on par with a former chauffer, a former secretary (not the one he ran off and started a second family with), three grandchildren and a niece.
Alexis Martin stands to receive £68,250 from her late, estranged father’s estate, Daily Mail reports, the same exact amount bequeathed to his grandson, Connor. But hey, at least he was considerate enough to give her exactly the amount she’d need to avoid any estate or inheritance tax…right?
Alexis tells the Daily Mail that she’s been “categorized’ in the will along with a chauffeur and other employees is “the final act of our marginalization.” When Martin died, a message written by Paul McCartney shared his sympathy with Martin’s widow, Judy, and their children, Lucie and Giles. There was no reference to Alexis or her brother, Greg, anywhere.
When Alexis reportedly met with Lucie after hearing about the will—in which Martin leaves an as-yet undeclared sum to his two youngest children—it didn’t go well.
“I don’t think that she reckoned on me being quite so upset,” Alexis told the Daily Mail. “She told me: ‘Dad was no businessman. What he made, he spent.’ She denied that there were any hidden trusts. But at that time I did not know, as I do now, that she, Giles and Judy were longstanding directors of dad’s companies. I suggested that the settlement could be put right at a later date. She took this to mean after her mother died and got very offended. We parted on bad terms.”
Read more here. It’s a sad closing chapter to the story of the Fifth Beatle.
