With Stuart Sutcliffe
Soon after her first encounter with The Beatles, Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe began a relationship and fell deeply in love.
It was very hard for all of us. Klaus liked Stuart a lot, and Stuart had a conscious hurt about falling in love with me and hurting Klaus.
By November 1960 they were engaged to be married. The following month George Harrison was deported from Hamburg for being under-age. The rest of the group returned to Liverpool.
By this time Sutcliffe had left the band to continue his art studies in Hamburg, though they kept in close contact.In February 1961 he borrowed money from Kirchherr to fly back to Liverpool, and that summer took her to see his family and home city.
Sutcliffe's headaches and blackouts led Kirchherr's mother to arrange for German doctors to carry out checks on him, though while living at the family home in Hamburg his condition worsened. On 10 April 1962 he was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, with Kirchherr by his side, but he died before they arrived.
He died in my arms on that journey. I cannot say it was unexpected but the suddenness... the loss to me was great, and to anyone who knew him, because he was a genius, with a great mind and an original talent as an artist. He would have been outstanding, if he'd lived.
Three days later she met The Beatles at Hamburg airport and told them of Stuart's death. She fell into depression in the months afterwards, and was comforted by John Lennon. He told her: "Come on, make up your mind, live or die. Stop sitting at home - it won't bring Stu back."
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