In fact, I was asked many times if I was John's wife, and I had to refuse and say, 'No, no, I'm somebody else.' 'Ĭynthia and John Lennon divorced in 1968, after John fell in love with Yoko Ono. 'If the lead, the main man in the group was found to be married, then it might take away from that particular success, so I walked around pregnant for quite a long time, hiding it. He wanted a lot of support from the fans,' she said. 'Brian wanted a lot of adulation from the fans. In a 1985 interview with Terry Gross, Cynthia Lennon explained that when The Beatles were just getting started, manager Brian Epstein told John Lennon that he had to maintain the illusion of being single. During the years John toured the world with The Beatles, Cynthia Lennon was at home raising their son Julian.

The two met in art school in 1957 and were married in 1962. This discussion with Cynthia Lennon was originally broadcast on August 6, 1985.Ĭynthia Lennon was the first wife of The Beatles' John Lennon. Fresh Air remembers the legendary musician by excerpting interviews conducted with those who knew him. October 9 would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday.

But her most memorable ones were the visits she made as an ambassador for her son’s philanthropic organization to different parts of Asia and Africa.Cynthia Lennon walks alongside John Lennon in this 1966 file photo. During her later years, she travelled around the world to various Beatles themed exhibitions. This included an illustrated and witty biography about her early life, and some on and off design works for different brands.

After the divorce, she tried to make a life for herself and her son, Julian through her art. She realized her days as a Beatles wife had come to an end when she walked in on her husband, with John Lennon and his lover Yoko Ono in bathrobes, sitting on the floor facing one another. However, the band’s stardom, and especially that of John’s exacted a heavy price from her marital life. As such, she was one of the select few to have experienced the phenomenon that was Beatlemania from the proverbial ‘ringside seat’. John and Cynthia first met at the Liverpool College of Arts during a calligraphy class, and they started dating around the time the Beatles were in their formative years. A talented English artist, Cynthia Lennon, was best known as John Lennon’s first wife, and the mother of Julian Lennon.

John lennon and cynthia