Find out from this article who the wives of the English singer and peace activist John Lennon are: Yoko Ono and Cynthia Lennon.
John Winston Ono Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, and died on December 8, 1980. He was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon’s work included music, writing, drawings, and film. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
Who is John Lennon?
John Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital to Julia (1914–1958) and Alfred Lennon (1912–1976). Alfred was a merchant seaman of Irish descent who was away at the time of his son’s birth. His parents named him John Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John “Jack” Lennon, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed The Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called “the smart Beatle”, Lennon initially was the group’s de facto leader, a role he gradually ceded to McCartney.
Through his songwriting in the Beatles, Lennon embraced a myriad of musical influences, initially writing and co-writing rock and pop-oriented hit songs in the band’s early years, then later incorporating experimental elements into his compositions in the latter half of the Beatles’ career as his songs became known for their increasing innovation. Lennon soon expanded his work into other media by participating in numerous films, including How I Won the War, and authoring In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, both collections of nonsense writings and line drawings.
Starting with “All You Need Is Love”, his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture of the 1960s. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, the multimedia artist Yoko Ono, held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-ins for Peace, and left the Beatles to embark on a solo career.
Between 1968 and 1972, Lennon and Ono collaborated on many works, including a trilogy of avant-garde albums, several more films, his solo debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and the international top-10 singles “Give Peace a Chance”, “Instant Karma!”, “Imagine”, and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”. Moving to New York City in 1971, his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a three-year deportation attempt by the Nixon administration. Lennon and Ono separated from 1973 to 1975, during which time he produced Harry Nilsson’s album Pussy Cats.
He also had chart-topping collaborations with Elton John (“Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”) and David Bowie (“Fame”). Following a five-year hiatus, Lennon returned to music in 1980 with the Ono collaboration Double Fantasy. He was murdered by a Beatles fan, Mark David Chapman, three weeks after the album’s release.
As a performer, writer, or co-writer, Lennon had 25 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Double Fantasy, his best-selling album, won the 1982 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. That year, Lennon won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
In 2002, Lennon was voted eighth in a BBC history poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer and 38th-greatest artist of all time. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (in 1997) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994).
When did John Lennon and Yoko Ono meet?
In 1966, John and Yoko met in London at a gallery where Ono was preparing for an exhibition of her work.
Three years later, they married. The Beatles split up one year after Lennon and Ono’s wedding. Ono and Lennon went on to work together on a number of musical projects.
Lennon first met Yoko Ono on November 9, 1966, at the Indica Gallery in London, where Ono was preparing her conceptual art exhibit. They were introduced by gallery owner John Dunbar. Lennon was intrigued by Ono’s “Hammer A Nail”: patrons hammered a nail into a wooden board, creating the art piece. Although the exhibition had not yet begun, Lennon wanted to hammer a nail into the clean board, but Ono stopped him. Dunbar asked her, “Don’t you know who this is? He’s a millionaire! He might buy it.”
According to Lennon’s recollection in 1980, Ono had not heard of the Beatles, but she relented on the condition that Lennon pay her five shillings, to which Lennon said he replied, “I’ll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in.” Ono subsequently related that Lennon had taken a bite out of the apple on display in her work Apple, much to her fury.
Ono began to telephone and visit Lennon at his home. When Cynthia asked him for an explanation, Lennon explained that Ono was only trying to obtain money for her “avant-garde bullshit”. While his wife was on holiday in Greece in May 1968, Lennon invited Ono to visit. They spent the night recording what would become the Two Virgins album, after which, he said, they “made love at dawn”.
When Lennon’s wife returned home she found Ono wearing her bathrobe and drinking tea with Lennon who simply said, “Oh, hi.” Ono became pregnant in 1968 and miscarried a male child on 21 November 1968, a few weeks after Lennon’s divorce from Cynthia was granted.
Who is Cynthia Lennon?
Lennon met Cynthia Powell (1939–2015) in 1957, when they were fellow students at the Liverpool College of Art.
Recalling his July 1962 reaction when he learned that Cynthia was pregnant, Lennon said, “There’s only one thing for it Cyn. We’ll have to get married.” The couple wed on 23 August at the Mount Pleasant Register Office in Liverpool, with Brian Epstein serving as best man. His marriage began just as Beatlemania was taking off across the UK. He performed on the evening of his wedding day and would continue to do so almost daily from then on.
Epstein feared that fans would be alienated by the idea of a married Beatle, and he asked the Lennons to keep their marriage secret. Julian was born on 8 April 1963; Lennon was on tour at the time and did not see his infant son until three days later.
Cynthia attributed the start of the marriage breakdown to Lennon’s use of LSD, and she felt that he slowly lost interest in her as a result of his use of the drug. When the group traveled by train to Bangor, Wales, in 1967 for Maharishi Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation seminar, a policeman did not recognise her and stopped her from boarding. She later recalled how the incident seemed to symbolise the end of their marriage.
After spending a holiday in Greece, Cynthia arrived home at Kenwood to find Lennon sitting on the floor with Ono in terrycloth robes. She left the house, feeling shocked and humiliated, to stay with friends. A few weeks later, Alexis Mardas informed Powell that Lennon was seeking a divorce and custody of Julian.
She received a letter stating that Lennon was doing so on the grounds of her adultery with Italian hotelier Roberto Bassanini, an accusation that Powell denied. After negotiations, Lennon capitulated and agreed to let her divorce him on the same grounds. The case was settled out of court in November 1968, with Lennon giving her £100,000 ($240,000 in US dollars at the time), a small annual payment, and custody of Julian.
Their final album together before his death was Double Fantasy, which was released in 1980, just three weeks before Lennon’s death.
