What We Know About George Harrison's Only Son, Dhani

While the world at large looks at George Harrison and his bandmates in the Beatles as legendary musicians who changed the world with their talents, to Dhani Harrison, that's just his dad and his uncles. Named after the final two notes on the classical Indian Swara scale, Dhani is the son of the "My Sweet Lord" singer and his second wife, Olivia Arias. 

George and Olivia worked to raise their son out of the public eye, hoping to give him as normal a childhood as possible — perhaps hoping their son could avoid the struggles that come from being a nepo baby. In his early years, Dhani found himself hanging out with some of the greatest living musicians without even knowing it. Legends like Bob Dylan or Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne would pop by to play music with his dad, but to him, they were just regular people. And when it came to learning how to play music, Dhani had some of the best teachers around. As Ringo Starr explained, however, the kid was afraid of the drums.

Despite a house full of icons, Dhani didn't know that his father was a famous musician, explaining in Martin Scorsese's documentary, "George Harrison: Living in the Material World," "My earliest memory of my dad is probably of him somewhere in a garden covered in dirt, somewhere hot, a tropical garden, in jeans, khakis covered in dirt, just continuously planting trees. I think that's what I thought he did for the first seven years of my life." Dhani only learned that his father was one of the most famous musicians in the world when his schoolmates started making fun of him for it. And, in a very George Harrison fashion, his father had a simple response when Dhani confronted him about it, "I came home and I freaked out on my dad: 'Why didn't you tell me you were in The Beatles?' And he said, 'Oh, sorry. Probably should have told you that.'"

While that's how Dhani remembers it, his father told a different story. Appearing on the talk show "Aspel & Company" when Dhani was nine, George claimed that while he "didn't want to burden him with all that," Dhani watched "Yellow Submarine" when he was younger and "he came up to me one day and said 'Hey dad, how do you play the piano lick from 'Hey Bulldog?' and I thought that's strange." In the same interview, Harrison joked that his son was unimpressed with his father's status as a rock and roll legend. In both versions of the story, the one definite that father and son agree on is that George never actually told Dhani that he was famous, and Dhani had to learn it on his own. 

While teenage rebellion is part of growing up — even Barack Obama's daughters had their rebellious moments — underaged drinking, drugs, or partying wasn't Dhani Harrison's style. Although his dad would beg Dhani to skip school and join him for vacations, Dhani showed his parents he was his own man by studying hard and joining a rowing team. He even attended a military school and would walk around in his air force uniform to upset his dad. Through his teens and into adulthood, Dhani's plan was to be one of the many children of celebrities who live outside of the spotlight.

Dhani attended Brown University where he studied physics and industrial design, and considered getting a degree as an aeronautical engineer, but decided against it. While at Brown, he played in a few bands and was a DJ for the campus radio station, but it didn't look like music would be a major part of his life, explaining to Brown Alumni Magazine, "I did take a course in music and computers — and failed." After graduation, he took a position designing cars for McLaren Automotive, but became frustrated with the company, telling Wired it was, "A work-for-hire situation where they were stealing my ideas and not paying me anything."

At the time of his death, George Harrison was working on what would become his final album, "Brainwashed." The album went on to win a Grammy and seemed to unlock something in Dhani, who told Billboard, "I did everything I could to not be a musician. I went to university, I worked as a designer, I competed in Olympic sport ... and I ended up being a musician. It's in the DNA, I guess." 

In 2008, Dhani's band, thenewno2, released their first album, "You Are Here," followed by "The Fear of Missing Out" in 2012. In 2013, they recorded the soundtrack to the movie "Beautiful Creatures," and have followed that up by creating music for the films "Learning to Drive" and "The Divide," as well as the Amazon Prime series "Good Girls Revolt."

Being born in 1978, a year after the first "Star Wars" hit theaters, Dhani Harrison didn't have much choice but to love the series, but it was also something he shared with his father. Talking with StarWars.com, Dhani revealed that George Harrison was a big fan of "The Empire Strikes Back" and saw the franchise as a way to explain spirituality to people who weren't spiritual. But Dhani's love for "Star Wars" goes even deeper. He owns books that include the blueprints to "Star Wars" ships, and admits that "There's a couple lightsabers that I've built from parts from the Internet." He was even given a private tour of the set of "The Last Jedi" by Mark Hamill. Along with "Star Wars," he is also a big fan of "Game of Thrones," "West World," and "Stranger Things." Based on his Instagram, he also reads comics.

Dhani used his nerd side to help introduce his father, and all of the Beatles, to a new generation of fans through video games. It began when Dhani was talking to MTV's head of games, music, and movies, Van Toffler, and said he had been up all night playing the game "Guitar Hero." Toffler revealed that MTV had just bought Harmonix, the company that created "Guitar Hero" and that they were making a new game, "Band Hero." From there, the two hatched a plan to bring the Beatles to game consoles around the world with 2009's "The Beatles: Rock Band." Dhani didn't just lend a hand to secure the rights to the back catalog of the Fab Four, he also played a role in designing and developing the game. After "Beatles: Rock Band," Dhani continued to work with Harmonix, helping make "Rock Band 3."

Like his father George Harrison, Dhani Harrison is a private person, revealing little of his personal life to the press. While he does semi-regularly update his Instagram, he primarily uses it to promote projects he is working on and post photos of himself in the woods. In 2012, he married former model Sólveig Káradóttir in a wedding that included Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Tom Hanks among its guests, Káradóttir even wore a dress designed by fellow Beatle progeny Stella McCartney. Sadly, the couple divorced four years later. After his divorce, Dhani began a relationship with Australian singer-songwriter Mereki Beach. 

Dhani also appears to have a close relationship with Stella and Mary McCartney, who he grew up with, telling the Daily Mail that out of all the Beatles children, "I think I'm most similar to Stella and Mary. I really relate to the way they've dealt with their circumstances -– they're like big sisters to me." And while it's hard to believe the Beatles could ever be forgotten, Dhani continues to work on securing his father's legacy. In 2026, he teamed up with "Stranger Things" star Finn Wolfhard to create a stop-motion animation music video for his dad's song, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)." He also continues to make music. In 2023, he released his second solo album, "Innerstanding," and followed it up in 2024 by collaborating with the Tuvan throat-singing group Huun-Huur-Tu and Carmen Rizzo for "Dreamers In The Field." In 2025, Dhani teamed up with Rizzo again for "Ascending Into Silence."