Short answers, pulled from the story.
Maureen Cleave was a British journalist who worked for the London Evening Standard from 1958, interviewing prominent musicians including Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Over more than 50 years she interviewed people in many walks of life for outlets including the Telegraph Magazine, Observer Magazine, Saga magazine, and Intelligent Life magazine.
In an interview published as part of the Evening Standard series How Does a Beatle Live? in early 1966, John Lennon told Maureen Cleave that the Beatles were 'more popular than Jesus now'. Five months later, on the eve of a 14-city United States tour, an American magazine reprinted the line, sparking anti-Beatle sentiment especially in the South and Midwest.
According to Bob Spitz's biography of the Beatles, John Lennon claimed a liaison with Maureen Cleave that inspired the song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), and Lennon's friend Pete Shotton also pointed to Cleave. Cleave has said Lennon made 'no pass' at her, and Lennon later said he could not remember who the song was about; others have suggested the woman was Sonny Freeman, wife of photographer Robert Freeman.
Maureen Cleave was born in Mussoorie, British India, on the 20th of October 1934. Her mother, Isabella, was from Ireland, and her father, Major John Cleave, was English and served with the 7th Rajputs.
Maureen Cleave began as a secretary at the Evening Standard before convincing editor Charles Wintour to make her a show business correspondent writing the pop column Disc Date. In January 1963 she travelled to Liverpool on a tip and interviewed the Beatles for the piece Why the Beatles create all that frenzy, published the following month.
Maureen Cleave died on the 6th of November 2021, two weeks after her 87th birthday, following a short illness. She had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome after collapsing on the platform of Tottenham Court Road tube station in August 1992.