Patricia Molly Clapton: What Happened To Eric Clapton’s Mother?

Patricia Molly Clapton is the mother of English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter Eric Patrick Clapton. Patricia’s son Eric Clapton has achieved great success and recognition for his work in the music industry. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. His music has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows.

Patricia Molly Clapton: Bio Summary

Who Is Patricia Molly Clapton?

Patricia Molly Clapton is the woman who gave birth to Eric Clapton. Patricia was born on 7 January 1929 to Reginald Cecil Clapton and Rose Clapp. She is the sister of Adrian Clapton. At age 16, she became a mother. She gave birth to Eric Clapton at that age. She had a brief relationship with Eric’s father Edward Walter Fryer (21 March 1920 – 15 May 1985), who was at the time, a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec.

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Edward was stationed in England during Second World War and returned to Canada after the war and never knew his son in his lifetime. Edward loved music. He played the piano and sang in pubs at the time he met Patricia in England. He married several times and had other children. Eric was raised by his grandparents in Ripley, a village outside London. Patricia gave up her child to be raised by her mother.

As for Eric Clapton, he grew up believing that his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp (Patricia’s stepfather) were his biological parents. He believed that his mother Patricia was his older sister. Patricia eventually got married to Canadian soldier Frank MacDonald and moved to Canada and then Germany. She left her son Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.

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It was at the age of 9 that Eric Clapton discovered that Patricia Molly Clapton was actually his mother and not his sister. According to Daily Mail, Eric asked Patricia, ‘Can I call you Mummy now?’ but she refused and preferred he still kept things the way it was, maintaining that she was his older sister. Patricia reportedly had two other children at the time she returned.

Eric never got to meet his biological father. His father died long before he discovered anything about him other than his name, which his grandmother had told him. Several sources have it that, in 2007, Montreal journalist Michael Woloschuk tracked down Eric’s father Edward, and his family, discovering facts about them. That was when Eric Clapton got to know more about his father.

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What Happened To Eric Clapton’s Mother Patricia Molly Clapton?

Eric Clapton’s mother, Patricia Molly Clapton died in March 1999 in England, United Kingdom, at the age of 70, and was buried in Banstead, Surrey, England, United Kingdom. The cause of her death is unknown. The father of her child, Edward Walter Fryer died of leukemia in a North York, Ontario, Canada veterans hospital. He died on 15 May 1985, at age 65.

Eric Clapton wrote the song “My Father’s Eyes” and performed it for the first time in 1992 but never released it until 1998. My Father’s Eyes won a Grammy award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The song is inspired by the fact that he never met his father. It also refers to the short life of his son Conor Clapton.

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“In it I tried to describe the parallel between looking in the eyes of my son, and the eyes of the father that I never met, through the chain of our blood”, said Clapton in his autobiography.