John Lennon abused and neglected his "secret" first wife Cynthia Lennon for years before he eventually left her for Yoko Ono.
Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock PhotoCynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s first wife.
While Beatles fans are familiar with Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s longtime romantic and creative partner, fewer know the tragic story of Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia Lennon.
Cynthia Powell Lennon grew up as an ordinary girl from Hoylake, England. As a child, she showed skill in design and art, leading her to attend the Liverpool College of Art in the late 1950s. It was there that she fatefully met John Lennon, the future star of The Beatles who would go on to become one of the most recognized artists in history.
Their relationship was rocky from the start. When John’s career was first taking off in the early 1960s, he kept his relationship with Cynthia Lennon a secret, all the while engaging in a number of extramarital affairs. And throughout their marriage, he verbally abused Cynthia and their young son, Julian. But it wasn’t until John’s affair with Yoko Ono that their marriage finally fell apart.
This is the story of Cynthia Lennon, before, during, and after her marriage to one of the most famous rock stars to ever live.
The Early Life Of Cynthia Powell Lennon
Cynthia Powell Lennon’s parents, Charles and Lillian Powell, were a middle-class couple from Liverpool. Her father worked for the General Electric Company. During the Second World War, German air raids threatened Liverpool, so Lillian traveled to the coastal town of Blackpool to give birth to Cynthia on September 10, 1939.
Cynthia grew up in the seaside town of Hoylake. She particularly enjoyed art and design, and by the age of 11 was already winning prizes for her artwork. At 12 years old, Cynthia was accepted to the Junior Art School in Liverpool. She graduated in the late 1950s, shortly after her father died of lung cancer.
Heritage AuctionsCynthia Lennon’s sketch of the Beatles.
In September 1957, Cynthia enrolled at the Liverpool College of Art. She was a diligent student who rarely strayed from her studies, but she did leave herself time to date.
Her first serious relationship was with a man named Barry, or the “Romeo of Hoylake” as she would later describe him. At one point, Cynthia even considered marrying Barry. But their relationship would come to an abrupt end when Cynthia met John Lennon.
Cynthia Powell Meets John Lennon At Art School
Cynthia Powell first met John Lennon while taking a lettering class at the Liverpool College of Art. John introduced himself to her in class, and frequently asked to borrow her pens. Although he wasn’t her usual type, Cynthia felt drawn to John. After overhearing him compliment another woman on her blonde hair, Cynthia changed her own hair to better suit his tastes.
The pair started dating in 1958. And from the beginning, their relationship was less than perfect.
Cynthia quickly discovered that John had a vicious temper. He could also be intensely jealous and possessive. Speaking with the BBC, Cynthia described one occasion in which John hit her in a moment of jealousy after seeing her dancing with their mutual friend and his one-time Beatles bandmate, Stuart Sutcliffe (who, like original drummer Pete Best, was only part of the group before they found fame).
“That made him see red at that time. But it wasn’t until the following day and he’d been thinking about it all night and he caught me outside the ladies loos in the college basement, and just smacked me one. And I hit my head on the back of the pipes and he just walked off.”
Cynthia broke up with John Lennon after this incident. Three months later, he apologized profusely. Cynthia took him back.
This type of abusive behavior defined their relationship. And it only seemed to get worse once the couple married and had a child together.
The Impact Of Beatlemania On The Lennons’ Relationship
Keystone Press/Alamy Stock PhotoCynthia Lennon’s son, Julian Lennon, with his father.
By July 1962, Cynthia Powell had graduated college and had begun to pursue a career as an art teacher when she discovered she was pregnant with John Lennon’s son.
Upon hearing the news, John told Cynthia: “There’s only one thing for it Cyn, we’ll have to get married,” according to a 2015 Daily Beast article. The pair married on Aug. 23, 1962 in a quiet ceremony in Liverpool.
By this point, John had already joined The Beatles, and his musical career was starting to take off. Cynthia Lennon spent much of the beginning of their marriage living in England alone with the baby while John traveled the world with The Beatles — and engaged in a number of extramarital affairs.
As Beatlemania gripped the world, Beatles manager Brian Epstein worked hard to keep John’s marriage a secret. But rumors that John Lennon had a wife and child leaked out into the public from time to time — all of which the band denied.
After giving birth to her son, Julian, in April 1963, Cynthia Lennon experienced first-hand the impact of her husband’s fame as fans started to show up outside their home.
“I had a weirdo at the door one day when I was on my own with Julian,” she told the BBC. As the British press continued to publish stories about John Lennon’s secret family, the truth eventually became impossible to conceal.
In a bold move, John invited Cynthia to come with him to the United States in 1964, where the two were photographed together publicly.
Finally, the secret was out and the world knew that Cynthia Lennon was John’s wife.
Drugs Infiltrate The Marriage Of John And Cynthia Lennon
PA Images/Alamy Stock PhotoCynthia Lennon with John Lennon at Heathrow Airport in London in 1966.
Starting in 1964, Cynthia Lennon and John Lennon began living their life in the public eye. They purchased an opulent 22-bedroom home in Surrey called Kenwood, where they entertained famous contemporaries from around the globe.
But their relationship continued to be tumultuous. John was reportedly verbally abusive throughout his marriage to Cynthia, and by 1965, he had fallen heavily into drug use, including LSD, marijuana, and Preludin. John Lennon later admitted to doing LSD at least 1,000 times in a period of about five years.
In her 1980 book A Twist of Lennon, Cynthia described how the drugs changed her husband:
“In many ways it was a wonderful thing to watch. Tensions, bigotry, and bad temper were replaced by understanding and love.”
But while his temper had softened, he also became more withdrawn, especially toward Cynthia Lennon. Soon, he began to seek more from his life — leaving Cynthia to pick up the pieces.
The Lennons’ Marriage Falls Apart
Knight Frank RealtyJohn Lennon and George Harrison hanging up curtains at Kenwood.
In 1966, John Lennon met Japanese artist Yoko Ono at the Indica Art Gallery in London. Ono began pursuing John, bombarding him with letters and making frequent visits to Kenwood.
In 1968, The Beatles and their wives flew to India to spend three months studying Transcendental Meditation. By this point, Cynthia Lennon was growing suspicious of John’s relationship with Ono, who continued to send John letters while he was in India.
On the plane ride back, John Lennon admitted to his wife that he had had multiple affairs throughout their relationship. But while Cynthia was hurt by this confession, their marriage didn’t truly fall apart until Cynthia finally caught John with Yoko Ono.
That spring, she came home from a vacation in Greece to find Ono and John at Kenwood.
“I have got this woman sitting next to my husband, and both in toweling robes. It is obvious she has been there for the night,” she later recalled in her 2005 memoir John. “I said: ‘Oh, hi John. How about coming out for dinner?’ I did not know what to say. And he just looked at me. They both looked at me. And he just said: ‘No thanks.’ I just did not know what to do. I had to walk away from the situation.”
Soon after, John sued Cynthia Lennon for divorce, citing her supposed “infidelity.” But the truth of the matter became apparent when Yoko Ono became pregnant with John’s child. Cynthia countersued.
During their tense divorce proceedings, John reportedly belittled Cynthia and initially refused to give her more than £75,000.
“That’s like winning the pools for you, so what are you moaning about,” he said, according to a 2015 Daily Mail article. “You’re not worth any more.”
Cynthia Lennon’s Life After John Lennon
When the divorce was finally settled in late 1968, Cynthia ended up with £100,000 and custody of the Lennons’ son, Julian. Following their split, Paul McCartney made a special effort to keep in touch with Cynthia, even writing the hit song “Hey Jude” about Julian to console him over his parents’ messy divorce.
Two years after her divorce, Cynthia Lennon married Italian hotelier Roberto Bassanini. They divorced only three years later.
In the 1970s, Cynthia moved to Wales, where she opened a restaurant and bed and breakfast. She worked there during the day while Julian attended school nearby.
Auad/Alamy Stock PhotoJohn Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia Lennon, with her book John.
In 1976, Cynthia Lennon married television engineer John Twist. During this marriage, Cynthia published her first memoir, A Twist of Lennon — despite John Lennon’s attempts to keep it from being published.
Then, in 1980, a young man named Mark David Chapman fatally shot John Lennon in New York City. Cynthia was reportedly stunned by the news, and she would later tell journalists she had never stopped loving John or caring about him.
She and Twist divorced in 1983. Despite remarrying several times, Cynthia decided to change her surname back to Lennon for business reasons.
“Do you imagine I would have been awarded a three-year contract to design bedding and textiles [for Vantona Vyella in 1983] with the name Powell? Neither did they,” she said, according to a 2015 Vanity Fair article. “When it is necessary to earn a living, it is necessary to bite the bullet and take the flack.”
In the late 1980s, Cynthia Lennon launched a perfume line called “Woman” after the 1980 John Lennon song, and opened a restaurant in London called Lennon’s. Neither of these ventures were very successful. Soon, she began auctioning off various items from her marriage to John Lennon as a way to support herself. In 1995, she even attempted to make her own singing debut with the song “Those Were The Days,” but it never charted. She also appeared at Beatles conventions from time to time, and wrote a second memoir, John, in 2005.
Cynthia Lennon continued to work within the shadow of The Beatles until her death from cancer in 2015.
Reflecting on her life, Cynthia wrote: “If I had known as a teenager what falling for John Lennon would lead to, I would have turned around right then and walked away.”
After reading about John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia Lennon, dive into the surprising stories behind your favorite Beatles songs. Then, read about the bizarre conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced with a lookalike.
