Since her husband's death in 2001, Olivia has continued George’s international aid efforts through projects in partnership with UNICEF, and is the curator of film, book and music releases related to his legacy.

She represents his voice on the Beatles' Apple Corps board and is similarly a director of his charity organisation, the Material World Foundation (MWF).

She and her husband shared an interest in Eastern mysticism and spiritual practice, and her presence in his life, starting in the mid-1970s, began a period of more optimistic content in Harrison's music.

At their Friar Park home in December 1999, when she overpowered a knife-wielding intruder who had repeatedly stabbed George, she was recognized as having saved her husband's life.

[6] By 1974, as a member of the marketing department,[7] she regularly liaised by long-distance telephone with George Harrison, whose new record label, Dark Horse, was distributed by A&M.

[8] Until the late 1970s, Arias worked with a roster of artists that included Ravi Shankar, Splinter, Stairsteps, Attitudes, Keni Burke and Henry McCullough.

[6] According to author Robert Rodriguez, she was "a capable and even-tempered administrator, ably handling the routine chaos involved with setting up a record label and dealing with all manner of personalities".

[12][13] Their shared interest in spirituality, together with a lifestyle incorporating vegetarianism, had a calming effect on Harrison,[8][7] whose reliance on drugs and alcohol Arias helped curb.

[24] Following John Lennon's murder in New York in December 1980, Olivia, George and Dhani spent much of the early 1980s travelling in the Pacific region, alternately residing in Hana on Maui, and Hamilton Island in the north-east of Australia.

[28] In 1989, she was the target of hate mail and death threats at George's and her Henley estate, Friar Park, the details of which were kept secret until a London police officer leaked the story to the press the following year.

[26] In 1990, she fully embraced the media spotlight,[26] in reaction to the plight of around 100,000 Romanian orphans left abandoned amid the chaos that followed the deposing of Romania's Communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu.

[32] That same month, she founded the Romanian Angel Appeal (RAA) to provide aid to the children,[33][34] having enlisted support from the other Beatles' wives: Bach, Linda McCartney and Yoko Ono.

The man was quoted as saying he was on a "mission sent by God,” and that the Beatles were "witches.”[41][42] The home invasion was a front-page news story around the world, with some headlines recognising Olivia as having "saved" her husband.

[54][nb 4] Following her husband's death, Harrison joined Yoko Ono (Lennon's widow), Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in managing the Beatles musical and financial legacy, [56] as one of the five directors of Apple Corps.

[57] In June 2006, she attended the Las Vegas launch of the Beatles' Love stage show, a project George had initiated through his friendship with Guy Laliberté of Cirque du Soleil.

[59] In November 2002, Olivia Harrison produced the Concert for George tribute, which featured Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Billy Preston, Tom Petty, Shankar, Starr and McCartney, along with Dhani.

[67] In 2010, she served as compilation producer of George's works with Ravi Shankar, in a box set titled Collaborations – a project she described as a "labor of love for me".

[68] In addition to designing the elaborate packaging with Drew Lorimer,[69] she oversaw the collection and restoration of long-lost footage of a 1974 Music Festival from India performance from the Royal Albert Hall.

The updated work involved her searching for George's handwritten lyrics and notes for songs that he had omitted from the 1980 book[78] or had written in the years following its original publication.

[1][80] Through the Material World Foundation, she first financed the restoration of some Charlie Chaplin short films[1] and then of works from Mexico's "Golden Age" of cinema.

[86] In May 1990, before the release of the fundraising single and album, ten trucks filled with food, medical supplies and clothing, together with 32 aid workers, were dispatched to Romania.

[93] As of July 2015, the fund had also assisted children affected by civil conflict, natural disasters or poverty in Brazil, India, Angola, Romania, the Horn of Africa, Burma and Nepal.