"Cynthia's grown up with it, with me." -John
I have managed to put together their story in the words of John and Cynthia, their friends, colleagues, acquaintances, family, reporters/paparazzi, employees and so on that witnessed and experienced first hand of being in their company. Some of these same people are the ones who have looked down upon John and Cynthia's relationship as 'nothing' but I've also caught them admitting of a sparkle which I'm going to exploit. In all due with respect, they have every right for their take about the relationship/marriage, however I would also like to point out that they did not live with John and Cynthia Lennon 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (or should I say 8?) so they do not have a complete personal take on their love life. The only person who has that experience is Dorothy Jarlett, the Lennons' former housekeeper. She was around very close to 24/7 and would have a better insight on John and Cynthia. But she's not talking much. Dorothy made a decision long ago to keep her memories private- perhaps a housekeeper's code of confidentiality. Although I kind of want her to talk to get several records straight and prove the downers wrong; but I also respect her decision not to.
"I met Cynthia at art school. She was a right Hoylake runt. Dead snobby. We used to poke fun at her and mock her, me and Geoff Mohammed. 'Quiet Please,' we'd shout, 'No dirty jokes, It's Cynthia.'" -John
"We met at art school in Liverpool. I was 18 and he was 17. He'd just lost his mother. I'd had a boyfriend when I was 17, he was a lot older than me, about 25. And John went out with a girl called Barbara for a couple of years before he met me. So we'd both been through the first flush of romance. I was a bit apprehensive of him. I thought he was very funny, but in a rather cruel sort of way. He was fighting the world." -Cynthia
"He was scruffy, dangerous looking and totally disruptive. He frightened the life out of me." -Cynthia
"His whole persona was really rebellious. He didn't give a damn about anybody. He would not work when he should be working. He'd have everybody in fits of laughter, because his jokes were very crude and very cruel. He was a one-off. I don't know why he fell for me because I was the exact opposite of him. But that's how I was attracted to him. And of course, we were in quite close quarters in college, so we got to know each other very slowly, but that was it" -Cynthia
"It was just an instant attraction. It was probably from the inside, not the outside, because he wasn't very attractive on the outside when I met him. But there was something about him that was for me. I was fascinated to the point where I wanted to know who he was, what he was, where he'd come from and what had made him into who he was at that time, which we all found out later on. That was it really. It was an attraction that I couldn't help." -Cynthia
“He was always around, always surrounded by people who were in awe of him. He was such a rebel. He was always somewhere around college, putting on his act, doing his thing and people were having hysterics. He was embarrassingly funny and you couldn’t resist it. I’d never met anybody like this before. I was new to college. I was definitely brought into his orbit when he was moved into my class.” -Cynthia
They got to slowly know each other after playing an eye-test, discovering that they have familiar eye-sight problems- they couldn't see well. But then she watched a mutural friend, Helen Anderson reaching over to rub John's hair. Cynthia raged with jealousy!"It was just an instant attraction. It was probably from the inside, not the outside, because he wasn't very attractive on the outside when I met him. But there was something about him that was for me. I was fascinated to the point where I wanted to know who he was, what he was, where he'd come from and what had made him into who he was at that time, which we all found out later on. That was it really. It was an attraction that I couldn't help." -Cynthia
“He was always around, always surrounded by people who were in awe of him. He was such a rebel. He was always somewhere around college, putting on his act, doing his thing and people were having hysterics. He was embarrassingly funny and you couldn’t resist it. I’d never met anybody like this before. I was new to college. I was definitely brought into his orbit when he was moved into my class.” -Cynthia
As I noticed this, Helen noticed it too. Laughing, she reached forward and stroked the stray locks into place. And as her fingers touched John's hair a pang of pure jealousy shot through me. I was astonished. It was instantaneous, completely out of my control and weird. I didn't even like him. Why should I be jealous? -Cynthia
"Despite myself, I had fallen in love. Until that moment I was serious, hard-working Cynthia, who wanted to be an art teacher. But from then on things were never normal again." -Cynthia
One day, not long after the jealousy moment, John would used to bring his guitar everywhere he went including to class. Afterwards, as Cynthia was packing up, John started to play "Ain't She Sweet" staring at her. Cynthia realized it and rushed out.
“...but probably when we were at college and he sang ‘Ain’t She Sweet’ to me. Did my heart melt? Yes, and I walked out in embarrassment. It was so beautifully done. That always sticks with me.” -Cynthia
John already had a girlfriend, Thelma Pickles, but the relationship was starting to fade out into different directions although they remained friends.
"We used to take the mickey out of her, but John always said he fancied her. He called her Miss Prim. He was certainly always attracted to her from the first time he saw her in the canteen." -Thelma
"I hate the word, but posh best describes John's first impressions of Cynthia. He was clearly attracted to her but hid that behind a regular barrage of bad jokes about her. She was the most important person to him for a long time but John did not want to look weak to his peers, to be soppy over a girl." -Pauline Sutcliffe
"John asked me to dance and I nearly died. Bingo! I then amazed myself by being very cool, calm and collected outwardly-inside I was out of this world. The dance was slow and smoochy. I was aloof and John, I think, was slightly embarrassed. It was all very painful and beautiful at the same time. The remaining students were looking on with puzzled expressions at such an unlikely combination." -Cynthia
John used to tease Cynthia- there's a saying that if a boy teased a girl, that would mean he liked her- and John did admit to having a thing for her the moment he first saw her.
It took a school dance before a break that tied John and Cynthia together as if being in the same Lettering class wasn't enough.
We had a class dance and I asked her to dance. Geoff had been having me on, saying, 'Cynthia likes you, you know.' As we danced I asked her to come to a party the next day. She said she couldn't. She was engaged." -John"John asked me to dance and I nearly died. Bingo! I then amazed myself by being very cool, calm and collected outwardly-inside I was out of this world. The dance was slow and smoochy. I was aloof and John, I think, was slightly embarrassed. It was all very painful and beautiful at the same time. The remaining students were looking on with puzzled expressions at such an unlikely combination." -Cynthia
Cynthia ruined a tense-romantic moment by saying that she was engaged to an older man named Barry, who she had been dated for a few years. But later that day, Cynthia was starting to leave with her best friend, Phyllis Mackenzie before John saw her and called her over to convince her to stay- so she did while Phyllis left. John and Cynthia went from the school dance to Ye Crack, a local bar for some drinks before going over to Stuart's to...well they did it. Sex right off the bat on day 1. Whatever steady relationships they've had with Thelma and Barry were over at that very moment. John also started to call Cynthia 'Cyn', a nickname that he kept up with up until he died.
Their relationship wasn't an easy one. Both of them had recently lost a parent (Cynthia- her father Charles; John- his mother Julia) but in different ways; Cynthia's father died of cancer and although she missed him very much, she had a peace of mind about it. Meanwhile, John's mother's death was an unexpected event by being hit by a drunken off-duty police officer so John was reeling in grief.
"When I met him a few months later he had a great chip on his shoulder." -Cynthia
John and Cynthia were also very different- John was a rebel who liked to joke around and play hooky from school while Cynthia was a nice girl who was a serious student. He was loud, she was quiet; he dressed in leather while she dressed in cotton. Their friends had their own doubts about the relationship, but they couldn't deny the attraction between the couple.
"John's friends were a bit put out though: Cynthia was far too respectable to fit into the image of a rock 'n' roller's moll. John had his own ideas about his perfect woman" -Julia Baird (John's half sister)
"They were totally opposites but right for each other, and although they came from different backgrounds, they were a perfect match...They loved each other very much. There was no separating them" -Phyllis McKenzie
Their relationship wasn't an easy one. Both of them had recently lost a parent (Cynthia- her father Charles; John- his mother Julia) but in different ways; Cynthia's father died of cancer and although she missed him very much, she had a peace of mind about it. Meanwhile, John's mother's death was an unexpected event by being hit by a drunken off-duty police officer so John was reeling in grief.
"When I met him a few months later he had a great chip on his shoulder." -Cynthia
John and Cynthia were also very different- John was a rebel who liked to joke around and play hooky from school while Cynthia was a nice girl who was a serious student. He was loud, she was quiet; he dressed in leather while she dressed in cotton. Their friends had their own doubts about the relationship, but they couldn't deny the attraction between the couple.
"John's friends were a bit put out though: Cynthia was far too respectable to fit into the image of a rock 'n' roller's moll. John had his own ideas about his perfect woman" -Julia Baird (John's half sister)
"They were totally opposites but right for each other, and although they came from different backgrounds, they were a perfect match...They loved each other very much. There was no separating them" -Phyllis McKenzie
There was always something about John mistreating Cynthia. There's one account of a college janitor caught John mishandling Cynthia and Cynthia have said that John one time hit her across the face after finding her dancing with their friend Stuart Sutcliffe at a party (innocent!) as well as a few other misfortune accounts.
"I was hysterical. That was the trouble. I was jealous of anyone she had anything to do with. I demanded absolute trust from her, because I wasn't trustworthy myself. I was neurotic, taking all my frustrations out on her. She did leave me once. That was terrible. I couldn't stand being without her." -John
"On one particular occasion I was dancing with our mutual friend Stuart and he happened to walk in and see it and of course got the wrong idea. The following day, in a blind fury, he just smacked me across the face and I hit my head on the pipe that was running down the wall. I walked away. It could have been the end of the relationship if he hadn’t phoned me, but he was the one who came back to me. And I just couldn’t resist.” -Cynthia
John was jealous of any guy that had an eye on Cynthia [more of John's jealousy over Cynthia coming up in Hamburg, Germany]; I remember reading somewhere that while out at Ye Crack, John would hold tightly to Cynthia's hand without letting go. Cynthia claimed that John only hit her once and that was too far for her to take- it's enough to tolerate his mood swings and aggressive behavior but once he reached the line of abuse, Cynthia had it and walked. John felt guilty and once they reunited, Cynthia claimed that John never once hit her again as he was shaken after realizing what he had done.
However, there was another story version of their breakup when John's flirting went too far for Cynthia's taste that she broke up with him to which John later backed up in 1968 while participating The Beatles' authorized biography by Hunter Davis.
"I knew he loved me, yet despite this even in those days John was a flirt. He couldn't resist chatting up other girls - usually blondes. I got so annoyed over one minor flirtation with a Brigitte Bardot-type that I finished with him. I don't think John could believe it. It was unheard of and it nearly killed me to do it but I stuck to my decision. I went home and refused to go out with him again. I wasn't happy but I tried to forget John. I even went out with someone else...Three miserable, lonely weeks went by, then late one night John phoned. He was in a call box and he sounded upset. He loved me, he missed me and he wanted me back. My depression vanished like fog in the sun. I didn't need any persuading. I'd missed him as much as he missed me. I drifted off to bed that night, the happiest girl in the world" -Cynthia
Was it a cover up? I'm not sure because the quote above was from 1994...Did they broke up twice? I doubtful because Cynthia has written/spoken about going out with another man during their breakup that seems to hold it's own after whatever version it was of John and Cynthia's break up. John calling her from the phone booth is also what both versions of the break-up had in common. Could it be that right after Cynthia broke up with John, the following day or so she caught him kissing another girl and was heartbroken? Whatever the reason may have been, the fact is that John and Cynthia did at one time broke up. Cynthia never did tell John about her rebound date as she knew he would've been furious no matter what.
From the moment John and Cynthia got together, they were inseparable most of the time. When John knew that Cynthia was going to see him at his home in Mendips where he lived with his Aunt Mmi Stanley Smith, John would be all giddy like a love-sick teenager
"John and I would go and have a couple of quiet beers, just to sit down and chew the fat. And he'd talk about Cynthia and how much he missed her" -Pete Best
"Right from the start in the Casbah, John was always very jealous whenever Cyn was around; if anyone tried to talk to her while he was playing Lennon would try to wither them with a laser-like glare. Once off-stage they would be abruptly told to 'fuck off.' It was plain that night in the Top Ten that the two girls were now a little scared. At the end of the number, the heavy mob of Lennon and Best hurried down from the dais and sailed in to save them. In his usual blunt manner, John handed out a verbal lashing and for a few moments a nasty scene threatened to develop. 'Why are you butting in?' one of the Germans asked arrogantly, sparring for trouble, which resulted in some pushing and jostling. 'That's my girlfriend you're messing about with,' John snarled at him. The situation immediately began to cool, and the apologies followed. The Germans explained that they thought the girls were simply British tourists looking for fun; what's more, they went on, they themselves were Beatle fans and would never think of trying to upset us. After this near-miss the waiters, ever dutiful, made a point of hovering near Cyn and Dot like watchful guard dogs. There was never any more trouble after that one incident." -Pete Best
John, who was 'in love' with actress Brigitte Bardot, had Cynthia transform her goody-nerd brown-haired style to a glamour blonde in tight clothes and fishnet stockings. She did so to please him.
"Unfortunately for Cyn, she happened to come along at the time everyone was trying to turn their girlfriend into a bargain basement Bardot. We all happened to be at the age when a ravishing sex goddess taking off her clothes was the fantasy for us boys. We were all smitten. So the girls had to be blonde, look rather like Brigitte and preferably pout a lot. John and I used to have these secret talks intimating, although not actually saying it, that we could be quite happy for our girlfriends to be Liverpool's answer to Bardot. My girlfriend was called Dot and, of course, John had Cynthia. We got them both to go blonde and wear mini skirts. It's terrible really. But that's the way it was." -Paul McCartney
I fell in love with Cynthia. It's as simple as that." -John
From the moment John and Cynthia got together, they were inseparable most of the time. When John knew that Cynthia was going to see him at his home in Mendips where he lived with his Aunt Mmi Stanley Smith, John would be all giddy like a love-sick teenager
"About a fortnight after John and Cyn started going together, I happened to stop in at Mendips a few moments before she was due to turn up. Though I was expected elsewhere, John insisted that I stick around. 'You'll want to see this one,' he said. 'She's not Brigitte, but she's really all right.' I couldn't remember John ever having seemed so excited about a girl; he even kept running to his bedroom window to check whether Cynthia's bus arrived" -Pete Shotton
"One day, not long after we had first met Cyn, I was at Mendips with John and he told me that Cyn was coming from town on the bus. I was twelve then and I was looking forward to seeing her again, wondering what arty, studenty clothes she would be wearing. Mendips is right on the main road, which meant that you could see the bus stop if you looked through the upstairs windows, which is why John ran up and down the stairs to his bedroom whenever he thought he heard a bus engine. You could hear whether or not the bus stopped to let passengers on or off. When the bus did indeed deposit Cynthia on the pavement, John shouted ‘Yes!’ and then flung himself downstairs to watch for her coming through the gate. Then he sauntered through the kitchen, as if he didn’t even know she was coming and he was bumping into her in his own garden by sheer good luck! I couldn’t believe his cool. I loved it! Cynthia was dressed in black from head to toe, just like John. A couple of art students, in love and looking like art students…in love. It was tangible." -Julia Baird
"George and Paul both thought it was a great laugh that John was so keen on Cynthia, the lovely girl who used to go to art school with him. Even then, four years before they married, they were crazy over each other. Cyn used to travel thirty miles a night from her home in Hoylake just to sit by the stage of the Casbah, listening to John, playing with us." -Ken Brown
John was committed to his music and would practice every chance he got with Paul McCartney and George Harrison, who went to school Liverpool Institute next door to John and Cynthia's Liverpool College of Art. John wanted Cynthia to be with him, so she sat there and watched them create their craft and practice songs- just like John would later do with Yoko Ono during the album recordings of the Beatles- except with Cynthia, Paul and George quietly accepted it while with Yoko (including Ringo), not so much. Maybe it was age? Or habit of being just the four of them in the studio after so long that having another person there who's new that it was pretty intrusive? Whatever the case may have been, Paul and George did like Cynthia right away [more about that later]. Cynthia wasn't really into rock 'n' roll at the time- she more into classical music (ironically, that's what happened with Heather Mills- she was into classical music and didn't know much of the Beatles by the time she got with Paul McCartney in 1999; she was more familiar with Wings though as she was born in 1968) but soon Cynthia did become a fan of rock.
The first break of John and Cynthia's inseparable was when the Silver Beatles had an early tour in Scotland before they headed out to Hamburg with Pete Best and Stuart in tow. John set her postcards and letters. In 1960, the Beatles went to Hamburg for a couple of months. John wrote to Cynthia every day whenever he could during breaks of sleeping, performing, strutting around Hamburg and, yes, having his fun times with groupies and hanger-ons- living the rock star life.But he remained committed to Cynthia. The longer the Beatles played on stage, they needed more songs to cover up the time so John would ask Cynthia to send him lyrics to songs for their setlist. She would buy the record and slow it down to write them down.
"Postman, Postman, don't be slow. I'm in love with Cyn, so go man, go" and "SWALK" [Sealed With A Loving Kiss] -John (on the envelopes addressed to Cynthia)
"I loved his mentality, not because I thought he was a sexy boy. That was reserved by me for Stuart, whom I adored and fancied right from the start. John was pleased for Stuart. Also, John told me he had left his girlfriend at home, in Liverpool, so that was that." -Astrid Kirchherr
"You know what I have written- carved- on a church in Hamburg? 'John loves Cyn.' That was my first going out with her at that time. A church that overlooks just outside the Reeperbahn. But out right in town, and it's got a big green tower, that you can walk up in. And we all carved our names on there. You can have a look. There will be John & Cyn, Stu & Astrid, Paul & what the hell was the girl at that time?...I think Stu and Astrid is up there but I know John & Cyn is. We stuck our names up there with whoever we were hanging on then." -John (1975)
John and the Beatles spent a lot of time in Hamburg over the next 2-3 years. In 1961, Cynthia and Paul's girlfriend Dorothy Rhone went up during Cynthia's Easter break from college to visit the Beatles. Cynthia and Dot traveled by train and were greeted by their drugged up exhausted yet hyper boyfriends. Cynthia stayed with Astrid while Dot stayed at another Hamburg friend's houseboat. At first, judging from John's letters, Cynthia wasn't too fond of Astrid as John kept going on and on about her, fearing that one of these days she would've gotten a break up letter. But once she finally met Astrid, she herself understood John's fascination! Meanwhile, John's jealousy over Cynthia was still intact.
"I was very curious about this Astrid. She'd cropped up again and again in John's letters home. Everything was Astrid this and Astrid that. Astrid was taking wonderful photographs of them, strid had such good taste- until I'd become quite jealous." -Cynthia"...Cynthia managed to join John during the Beatles' second German jaunt. He later told me that it was on her account that he once very nearly placed his own life in jeopardy. This uncharacteristic display of gallantry occurred in the throes of a Beatles performance at the Top Ten Club, when John espied a formidable looking gentleman in the act of pawing his Cyn. In a flash, heedless of the consequences, John threw down his guitar, leaped from the stage, grabbed a bottle- and cracked it over the skull of Cyn's admirer. To John's astonishment, his rival didn't even flinch, but merely stared back, motionless and expressionless, with the blood, glass, and booze spilling down his face. This apparition lasted a full minute, but the end of which John felt utterly unnerved, convinced he was looking death right in the eye. Yet when the wounded tough finally spoke, all he said was: 'I'm so sorry I was annoying you.' 'Well then,' John snarled, as menacingly as he could under the circumstances, 'don't do it again!' Whereupon he stalked back onto the stage, desperately hoping nobody noticed he was shaking as he strapped on his guitar." -Pete Shotton
"John took Cynthia with him for part of this second trip, over Easter holiday in 1961. He had been bragging so much about it at home, that the really had no choice but to take her along. I’m sure that Cynthia would have heard about the girl groupies from the others and from general gossip and excitement that surrounded the group, and that this probably strengthened her determination to be at John’s side during the next trip. Tables were turned, however, with a singular incident, in Hamburg’s Top Ten Cub, when someone in the audience tried to attach himself to Cyn, while she was watching John play. In the middle of a number, John leapt right off the stage to hit the chat-up man who was trying to get close to his girl. He must have been wearing his glasses!" -Julia Baird
"Our weeks in Hamburg with Stuart and Astrid and the rest of the boys were so special. It was a brilliant, exciting time. Everything seemed to be exciting then" -Cynthia
"Oh, that was brilliant, but again it was very violent and very dangerous. But then again, I had Astrid Kirchherr as my sort of escort. Astrid and Klaus who they met when they first went to Hamburg and became friends with, who were German and knew the ropes and knew everything. They were students. So when I went, I was well protected. I had no problems. But the performances there were completely different to the performances in England. Obviously it was in the Reeperbahn, where it was very rough and rugged...drugs, lots of murders. Sounds good doesn't it? But they were also protected 'cause they had people around them who were Germans who lived around Hamburg. They had to perform every night of the week, eight hours every night." -Cynthia
"Our weeks in Hamburg with Stuart and Astrid and the rest of the boys were so special. It was a brilliant, exciting time. Everything seemed to be exciting then" -Cynthia
"Oh, that was brilliant, but again it was very violent and very dangerous. But then again, I had Astrid Kirchherr as my sort of escort. Astrid and Klaus who they met when they first went to Hamburg and became friends with, who were German and knew the ropes and knew everything. They were students. So when I went, I was well protected. I had no problems. But the performances there were completely different to the performances in England. Obviously it was in the Reeperbahn, where it was very rough and rugged...drugs, lots of murders. Sounds good doesn't it? But they were also protected 'cause they had people around them who were Germans who lived around Hamburg. They had to perform every night of the week, eight hours every night." -Cynthia
John showed Cynthia the sights of Hamburg and there had been a few nights that he would talk Cynthia into spending the night with him on his bunk with his other bandmates snoring away on their own bunk mates. During breaks, they would slip away for some private time until it was time to perform some more.
"But there were nights when the two girls trooped upstairs to our dormitory, and on these occasions George and I would be instructed not to claim our bunks until four o'clock in the morning. If the holiday-makers, weary of sight-seeing, came into our quarters during the afternoon, George and I would be requested tactfully to 'look the other way.' There was little to occupy Cyn and Dot once they had done the sights and visited the shops in the more respectable area of the city, guided by Astrid, who drove them around in her grey VW Beetle. In the evening the girls had a choice of either sitting around in the Top Ten and watching us 'making show' with Tony Sheridan for seven or eight hours, or wandering off to the dormitory to escape the ear-splitting noise. When they did choose to take refuge upstairs, John and Paul would drift off during a session to visit them, then rejoin us on stage later." -Pete Best
John would send Cynthia whatever money he earned from performing every week while Paul, George, Stuart and Pete would spend their money on whatever they could get their hands on.
"I couldn't believe what he was doing. I said 'If you do this every week, what do you live on?' He said, 'Oh I can earn a few marks by playing for this stripper round the back street in the afternoon'. It was incredible- very responsible behavior for a boy of that age. All the musicians seemed to booze their money away, John had to get it back to Liverpool quickly." -Henry Henroid (Hamburg's Star Club's booking agent)
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"I do remember John being told you don't have to marry her John; you don't have to do this. I know that Mrs Powell, that's Cynthia's mother, also told Cynthia, you don't have to get married. So they didn't get married because it was a shotgun wedding. They got married because they wanted to, because I remember John saying: 'I want to marry her, what's the matter with you all?'" -Julia Baird
John would send Cynthia whatever money he earned from performing every week while Paul, George, Stuart and Pete would spend their money on whatever they could get their hands on.
"I couldn't believe what he was doing. I said 'If you do this every week, what do you live on?' He said, 'Oh I can earn a few marks by playing for this stripper round the back street in the afternoon'. It was incredible- very responsible behavior for a boy of that age. All the musicians seemed to booze their money away, John had to get it back to Liverpool quickly." -Henry Henroid (Hamburg's Star Club's booking agent)
"Well, she's beautiful, you know, and what people don't know is how smart she is. No matter what's happening, you know, she's always there for me" -John
1962 was quite a year for John- The Beatles already enlisted Brian Epstein as their manager, he lost his best friend Stuart, got a record deal and Cynthia got pregnant in the summer. There's quite a number of accounts from all directions of how John was handling the idea about getting married and becoming a father. One half have said John was determined to marry while the other half have said that John didn't want it to happen.
"I finished the course and almost immediately discovered I was pregnant. I said to John: 'You don't have to marry me just because of this.' John's said quite a few times in interviews that he had to get married, but that isn't true. I gave him the choice, and that isn't widely known. He chose to marry me. If he hadn't, I'd have coped. I'd have had the child and kept it. I'd never have considered adoption.I had no idea then what was in the offing. His career was just beginning in a small way." -Cynthia"I do remember John being told you don't have to marry her John; you don't have to do this. I know that Mrs Powell, that's Cynthia's mother, also told Cynthia, you don't have to get married. So they didn't get married because it was a shotgun wedding. They got married because they wanted to, because I remember John saying: 'I want to marry her, what's the matter with you all?'" -Julia Baird
"John was dismayed but bowed to the inevitable, though not as dismayed as Mimi- or Brian. This wasn't in Brian's plans for the boys at all- a Beatle had to be footloose and fancy free and available...Although the whole affair was very private and had been hushed up, at one point John did say that he hadn't really wanted to get married and felt pushed into it...No, wedded bliss was not John's scene at all. "Christ," he said after the gig in Chester, as we were packing up, "I can't believe I went through with it." -Tony Bramwell
"He used to tell me how he and Cyn planned to settle down and raise a family as soon as the Beatles began to pay off, and how much he missed being without her." -Pete Best
"I asked John the crucial question: 'If Cyn had not been pregnant in 1962 would you have got married?' He thought for a long time and then replied: 'It's a hypothetical question after the event but I don't think so.' I was left with the impression that John was never truly in love until he met Yoko Ono..." -Tony Barrow (The Beatles' Press Officer)
"On different occasions both John and Cyn indicated to me that they married because the baby Julian was on the way and without this binding factor both might well have gone their separate ways as soon as The Beatles took off, rather than six years later. To have kept the baby but not married would have taken a more courageous soul than John, who was bold but not brave beneath his leathery mask of bravado." -Tony Barrow
"I thought it would be goodbye to the group, getting married. None of us ever took girl to the Cavern, as we thought we would lose fans- which turned out to be farce in the end. But I did feel embarrassed, talking about married. It was like walking about with odd socks on or your fly open." -John
"I didn't marry a Beatle, I married a broke student who played the guitar and ponced all my grant money off me for fags." -Cynthia
"My wife married me not because I’m a Beatle, but because she loves me." -John
"My wife married me not because I’m a Beatle, but because she loves me." -John
"I lived for the moment. I was never really dreaming about the future or marriage or babies. It never entered my mind. I was just very, very happy just to be with him. I'm quite a survivor, so probably inside me I thought well, I can probably survive whatever happens. Youth is very brave and as I said, love is blind. I didn't think about the future." -Cynthia
"Even I only learned the news several weeks later, when I told John of my own plans to marry my girlfriend, Beth, the following March. 'So how about you, John?' I bantered, well aware of John's disparaging attitude towards the holy institution of marriage. 'When are you and Cyn going to get married, then?' 'We already are married,' he said with an embarrassed grin, then hastily changed the subject. He clearly viewed his wedding as a little more than a trivial nuisance, and something hardly worth talking about." -Pete Shotton
Q: John, why do you have to get married?
"Because same reason why anybody would get married, you know? Don't be slushy-like, but you do it if you wanna get married, but you gotta go, you gotta go. As I always say" -John
Q: John, why do you have to get married?
"Because same reason why anybody would get married, you know? Don't be slushy-like, but you do it if you wanna get married, but you gotta go, you gotta go. As I always say" -John
To me, I don't think of John and Cynthia's marriage as a 'shotgun' wedding. It wasn't as if John knocked Cynthia up after an one night stand or a very brief relationship. They had been together for four years at that point. To be honest, I'm surprised that the pregnancy didn't come as quickly as it did as John and Cynthia were a couple of horn-dogs at every chance they got. Whatever what John may have felt, he went through with the wedding. I believe he was even at the register's office before Cynthia got there. It was a small wedding party: John, Cynthia, Cynthia's brother Tony and his wife Marjorie, Paul, and George. Ringo had just joined the band but he didn't attend the wedding- he found out about it some time later. John seemed to have taken the title of husband and soon-to-be father in stride. Rather than calling her Miss Prim or Miss Powell, he called her Mrs. Lennon
"We got married just before we made the first record. I was a bit shocked when Cynthia told me she was pregnant but I said 'Yes, we'll have to get married.' I didn't fight it. I went the day before to tell Mimi. I said Cyn was having a baby, we were getting married tomorrow, did she want to come? She just let out a groan. There was a drill going on all the time outside the Registry office. I couldn't hear what that bloke was saying. Then we went across the road and have a chicken dinner. It was all a laugh" -John
"I got married before I even knew what religion my wife was. I never asked her. She could have been anything. An Arab." -John
"I got married before I even knew what religion my wife was. I never asked her. She could have been anything. An Arab." -John
"I don't remember much about John's wedding. It took place in August 1962. He just went in registry office in Liverpool one afternoon, and in the evening we got into the car, went to the gig (we actually did a gig that night) and it was, 'Well we got married'. It wasn't hushed up, it just wasn't mentioned to the press. There was no wedding- it was a five minute thing in the Registry office. It was different in those days. No time to lose." -George Harrison
"I didn't go to the wedding- John never even told me he'd got married. John and Cynthia were keeping it a secret from everyone. If something got mentioned it was 'Shh, Ring's in the room'...John didn't tell me anything until we went on tour and got to know one another in all the doss houses where we camped." -Ringo Starr
"When Ringo joined the group I never told him I was married. At the time I didn't want it to get around and I didn't know how well I could trust him to keep it secret. But it came out one day when we Beatles went to an accountant's office and he asked: 'Do you have any dependents?' and I said: 'Yes, I've got a wife.'" -John"We were both sort of bowled over by the fact that we were married. It wasn't a question of 'Have we done the right thing?' It was all perfectly natural that we should be together. But John didn't get a real chance to be first a real husband or later, a real father. Once he got on the Beatles bangwagon he couldn't get off, even if he wanted to." -Cynthia
Despite the unsatisfactory regarding their marriage, they did admit that Cynthia was there for John who appreciated and relied on it.
"Cynthia was beautiful, physically and on the inside. Although she knew he was apt to find love on the road, she was totally dedicated to his success, and I might add, extremely influential. He was insecure and Cynthia was there to pump him up to buttress, sort of, his weak side. She was a wonderful mother who loved John deeply" -Tony Bramwell
"After rehearsals or a gig, we would go to a bar in the West End. We would drink and talk. It would be late at night, but Cynthia was always waiting for him, always there to embrace him. She was sweetly sensitive, and I do believe most people have no idea what a central figure she was in terms of keeping him somewhat stable during that hard phase when no one knew if the boys were a passing fad or the real thing. I mean, John was the leader, but he was also scared all the time. People forget what a rock she was for him." -Tony Barrow
"I was chatting to Cyn in the morning room as she was putting on her lipstick, and she was making all those faces you make when trying to have luscious lips. I was staring so intently that she gave me the lipstick as a present, although it was a new one. My first lipstick! Then she brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulders, moving it this way and that. She was waiting for John. We heard the wooden gate latch click open and shut. Suddenly, Cyn, after peeping through the window to check, sat down in the armchair and leaned back, spreading her hair over her shoulders, and closed her eyes. I watched her closely, then switched my gaze to John as he walked in from the kitchen. He was mesmerized! He grunted at me and made straight for the model posing in the chair." -Julia Baird
On April 8, 1963, Cynthia gave birth to John Charles Julian Lennon in Liverpool while John was still on tour. Ever since they got married, John did call as much as he could to check in on her. John managed to get to the hospital to meet his son for the first time 3 days after the birth. When Cynthia and Julian came home from the hospital by taxi, John and his family were all at Mendips to see the baby
"And then another memory is of Julian being brought home to 'Mendips' for the first time - this tiny, tiny, tiny baby. Cynthia did actually come back to live in 'Mendips' for a time." -Julia Baird
"I was proud of him, because I'd been there right from the beginning, whilst John and the boys were still at school and college. So it seemed wonderful what was happening to them, but John just didn't have the time for us. It's as simple as that. Six years' solid work and that was as long as our marriage lasted." -Cynthia
Q: A lot of the girls seem to feel that you prefer the celebrity-type woman better than the average girl.
"That's the first time we've heard it. I mean, are you making that up, or does somebody say that?" -John
Q: No, I've heard it before.
"Well, John's married to a non-celebrity, so there you go" -Paul McCartney
Q: A lot of the girls seem to feel that you prefer the celebrity-type woman better than the average girl.
"That's the first time we've heard it. I mean, are you making that up, or does somebody say that?" -John
Q: No, I've heard it before.
"Well, John's married to a non-celebrity, so there you go" -Paul McCartney
However a few weeks later, when The Beatles got their first vacation time after for a long time, John opted to go to Spain with Brian Epstein rather than stay home with Cynthia and newborn Julian. John needed a break and Cynthia knew it, she claimed that she honestly didn't mind but admitted that it did sting.
Brian Epstein was the one who wanted John's marriage and fatherhood a secret from the fans. He thought that The Beatles should be viewed as 'available' for the fans who dream of marrying their favorite band-member. At first John seemed to be all for the idea but somewhere down the line he felt differently. John fought with Brian about his marriage to be public. His reasoning was that his marriage was going to come out to the public anyway, so why not get it over with?
"She was a very nice person and Brian often said how good an influence she was on John. But it suited the grand plan to keep her well in the background, baby and all. They lived as quietly as possible with John's Aunt Mimi in Liverpool." -Alistair Taylor (Brian Epstein's Assistant)
"Brian had an obsession about not letting the marriage become public. At a very early stage of my involvement, John mentioned the fact that he was married and Brian went berserk about it to me. He said 'I don't know why he's told you that. Yes, of course it's true, but he's told awfully few people and I want you to make quite sure you don't tell anybody else.'" -Tony Barrow
"He was seeing a girl I knew and I was dying to tell her that he was married, but I couldn’t because I’d promised not to. I felt torn. It was awful." -Freda Kelly (the Beatles' fan club secretary)
"Another girl I knew who was a big John Lennon fan, she said to me, 'I know he's married and he's got a baby daughter'. I looked away and I said: 'He hasn't got a baby daughter' because at least that was true. I just knew you didn't say things." -Freda Kelly
"As far as Brian was concerned any news item that mentioned their marriage and/or their offspring would be damaging to the image of The Beatles. I thought this was a preposterous stance to take. His fear was that young females would fall out of love with John if they found out that he was a married man. My view was that in the Swinging Sixties an increasingly number of teenage fans would find John all the more interesting when they knew had had a wife. Here was an additional challenge of the forbidden fruit variety!" -Tony Barrow
"At Brian’s insistence, John’s wife and baby had been kept under wraps, a secret that, in Liverpool anyway, wasn’t really a secret at all. Cyn was forced to go without her wedding ring and, if the press approached, deny that she knew John, but many of the local fans knew she was John’s wife. John never liked the secrecy and denial, and he decided he’d had enough. He never thought, as Brian did, that the fans would turn against him if they knew he was married. And now he was adamant. He was moving Cyn and Julian to London. In fact the ‘secret’ came out before the move, when Cyn was caught by a press photographer and the papers ‘exposed’ John’s hidden wife. John and Cyn were relieved and there was no serious backlash from the fans." -Julia Baird
“That was how it was in those days, it was amateur and naive. I was walking round Derry and Toms trying to get the cheapest furniture for this flat and pushing Julian round in a pram and, of course, John was not there. Nobody knew what I looked like or who I was. I could have got away with murder.” -Cynthia
"We didn't keep it secret, it's just that when we first came on the scene, nobody really asked us. They weren't interested whether we were married or not. The question they used to ask was 'What kind of girls do you like?' And if you get our early news sheets, it says 'Blondes'. I wasn't going to say 'I'm married', but I never said, 'I'm not'. I always disliked reading about people's families." -John
Eventually the marriage and Julian came out to the press.by July of 1963, almost a year after John and Cynthia got married. Cynthia was relieved but also relished the private life as did John, who tried to keep his personal and private lives separate. They were also determined to let Julian have a normal childhood as they could give him.
“I want my wife to lead a normal life and not be pestered night and day just because she’s married to one of the Beatles. My wife married me, not because I’m a Beatle, but because she loves me. Why should she have to be bothered by publicity?” –John
"She prefers to just stay in the background as long as the people know that I'm married. She just wants to be a normal housewife as much as she can be, married to a Beatle, mind you." -John
"We cannot go on living like this. I must be able to lead a private life with my family. The fans are wonderful, but I have to think of my wife and child." -John
"We cannot go on living like this. I must be able to lead a private life with my family. The fans are wonderful, but I have to think of my wife and child." -John
In January of 1964, John made a risky decision: he was going to take Cynthia with him to America for the Beatles' first 'tour' on February 7th. There was an unspoken rule that no wives or girlfriends were allowed to travel although Cynthia had managed to break it now and then by visiting here and there (as she did in August of 1963 around their first wedding anniversary) and now she'll be traveling along with the Beatles.
"In February 1964 Cyn went on the road with The Beatles to America for the first and last time, choosing to be at John's side for what turned out to be the most chaotic if not the most hazardous of the group's four US trips during the touring years. One observer said she 'looked like a little child lost in a forest of giant ogres'. She rang her mum in Hoylake most nights to ask after Julian." -Tony Barrow
"John and Cynthia had only recently got married, so she came too." -Dezo Hoffman (Photographer)
"John Lennon brought his wife Cynthia, a nice blonde girl and she was horribly put out of sight and stayed home. I know it broke John's heart John wasn't happy about it and she was-- because we spoke on the plane. I photographed her and them on the plane coming over. And you know photographs don't lie. They tried putting on a black wig on her for a couple of days and that was the sad part that kept quiet because they wanted them to be like, you know, fresh- which they were" -Harry Benson (Photographer)
After the Beatles posed together and did a press conference, some reporters spotted Cynthia in the background and requested to take a picture of her and John together. John, with all the excitement going on, consented and Cynthia sat next to him while the photographers snapped away. It was the first time that John and Cynthia were officially photographed together man and wife in public. John and Cynthia walked together to board the plane with the fans all over Heathrow Airport screaming away for The Beatles. On the plane, John was nervous and excited along with Paul, George and Ringo. Many have mentioned that John was very quiet and sat with his wife, holding her hand. The Beatles were baffled by the fans' reception when they boarded off the plane. Cynthia accompanied the Beatles to rehearsals at the CBS Studios for the Ed Sullivan Show and went with them out on the town after the milestone appearance on television. About 73 millions viewers saw The Beatles perform 'Till There Was You' with the who's who- under John's name there was Sorry Girls, He's Married. If no one knew that John was married before, they certainly knew it at that moment! I do wonder what John thought of that? Was it his idea? I suppose we'll never know for sure. The Beatles went on to Washington D.C. by train as the weather conditions prevented a plane ride. John alternated his time by socializing with the press and reporters as well as going to the private car to join with his wife who was wearing a black wig so she wouldn't get recognized. During the Beatles' performance at the Washington Coliseum, Cynthia sat with George's sister Louise (who came to New York after getting word that George was sick with the flu and took care of him) to watch before they went back to New York for Carnegie Hall before flying down to Miami Beach, Florida.
"I was sitting next to Cynthia and we were both kind of sitting there with goosebumps, listening to the tremendous amount of vibrations that were in the theatre. For she and I, sitting together, to think that it's our guys that is all for was wonderful" -Louise Harrison Caldwell
In Miami Beach, it was a 'second' performance for the Ed Sullivan Show (technically third because the Beatles pre-recorded their performance- it's really the first- to air after the Beatles went home to England) at the Deauville Hotel where Cynthia watched from the wings as she did in New York City. The Beatles' party spent most of the time in Miami relaxing as if they were on vacation. Near the end of February, they headed back home to start work on 'A Hard Day's Night'. John was asked if his wife enjoyed her time over there:
"She loved it" -John
"Don't tell 'em he's married. It's a secret." -Ringo Starr
"I was sitting next to Cynthia and we were both kind of sitting there with goosebumps, listening to the tremendous amount of vibrations that were in the theatre. For she and I, sitting together, to think that it's our guys that is all for was wonderful" -Louise Harrison Caldwell
In Miami Beach, it was a 'second' performance for the Ed Sullivan Show (technically third because the Beatles pre-recorded their performance- it's really the first- to air after the Beatles went home to England) at the Deauville Hotel where Cynthia watched from the wings as she did in New York City. The Beatles' party spent most of the time in Miami relaxing as if they were on vacation. Near the end of February, they headed back home to start work on 'A Hard Day's Night'. John was asked if his wife enjoyed her time over there:
"She loved it" -John
"Don't tell 'em he's married. It's a secret." -Ringo Starr
John moved his family to Weybridge, Surrey for privacy with Ringo and George moving there not long afterwards where they visited each other often- especially John and Ringo [more about that later]. Now that he had money, John started to spoil his wife and son. The first gift John gave to Cynthia was a brown leather coat that they got together after he started getting money for the gigs he performed. While in Hamburg, John did buy Cynthia a few things- leather panties (underwear) is one notable gift. John kept the sexy underwear/lingerie thing going during their marriage- not just sexy ones but also ones that could pass as a ballgown to meet the Queen of England. John also got his wife perfume, clothes and jewelry.
“A few days later John is in a taxi, passing a store that has a red night-shirt in the window. He tells the cab to stop, goes inside, and asks how much the night-shirt costs. ‘Six pounds,’ he is told. ‘That’s a lot,’ he says, ‘but I think Cyn would like it.'" -Michael Braun
"You know, I don't need to do much for Julian, because the kids send me enough to keep him going till he's an old man, which is good. I'll get Cyn something, when I think of something. You know there's no point to getting something, just for getting something. We're not really present givers- when I see something she wants, I'll get it. I'll get something small, but something good or I won't bother." -John
John was also homesick. I'm sure he did love to tour up to the point but I also believe he didn't like being away from Cynthia.
"He often said it was a shame his family had to be pushed into the background. He regretted it, but once the Beatles wagon was rolling, he could not get off when he wanted to. He became exhausted and irritable when he was at home, and angry at his own absence when he wasn't there." -Cynthia
"Of course I miss it, but if I'm home for three months, I miss being out on tour. I need both sides of life to keep me going" -John
"Lennon seemed to have a very traditional love for Cynthia and would call her nightly to check in and talk, in baby talk, to his son Julian. It was exciting to watch. Here was a Beatle, the idol of millions, savoring a few minutes on the phone with his wife." -Art Schreiber (Radio Broadcaster)
"I talk to Cyn almost every night." -John
"Yeah, I miss 'em like mad, y'know." -John
"Her name is Cyn and I miss her very very much." -John
Q: Where would you like to go that you haven't gone yet?
"Home" -John
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Q: What does your wife think about your traveling away all the time?
"Well, she don't like it much. But she doesn't mind too much because it makes a lot of money for her" -John
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Q: Which one of you is most anxious to get home?
"Probably me, I'm married" -John
John was also homesick. I'm sure he did love to tour up to the point but I also believe he didn't like being away from Cynthia.
"He often said it was a shame his family had to be pushed into the background. He regretted it, but once the Beatles wagon was rolling, he could not get off when he wanted to. He became exhausted and irritable when he was at home, and angry at his own absence when he wasn't there." -Cynthia
"Of course I miss it, but if I'm home for three months, I miss being out on tour. I need both sides of life to keep me going" -John
"Lennon seemed to have a very traditional love for Cynthia and would call her nightly to check in and talk, in baby talk, to his son Julian. It was exciting to watch. Here was a Beatle, the idol of millions, savoring a few minutes on the phone with his wife." -Art Schreiber (Radio Broadcaster)
"I talk to Cyn almost every night." -John
"Yeah, I miss 'em like mad, y'know." -John
"Her name is Cyn and I miss her very very much." -John
Q: Where would you like to go that you haven't gone yet?
"Home" -John
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Q: What does your wife think about your traveling away all the time?
"Well, she don't like it much. But she doesn't mind too much because it makes a lot of money for her" -John
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Q: Which one of you is most anxious to get home?
"Probably me, I'm married" -John
"We would normally play it to Cynthia or whoever was around" -Paul McCartney
Although John didn't say out-loud to the public of which song was written for Cynthia, she did say herself that she knew John wrote some songs for her. John also used Cynthia as his sounding board as feedback and if he was stuck in a lyric, she would help him-- move over Paul! He would be in his music room in the attic of their home and once he got a song going, John would call down for Cynthia to stop whatever she was doing so she could listen of what he had.
Here's a list of songs that I do strongly believe that are written for Cynthia
-Do You Want to Know a Secret? (1962)
"I was in the first apartment I'd ever had that wasn't shared with fourteen other students - gals and guys at art school. I'd just married Cyn, and Brian Epstein gave us his secret little apartment that he kept in Liverpool for his sexual liaisons separate from his home life. And he let Cyn and I have that apartment." -John (1980)
"I was in the first apartment I'd ever had that wasn't shared with fourteen other students - gals and guys at art school. I'd just married Cyn, and Brian Epstein gave us his secret little apartment that he kept in Liverpool for his sexual liaisons separate from his home life. And he let Cyn and I have that apartment." -John (1980)
-Ask Me Why (1962)
-Please Please Me (1962)
-From Me to You (1963)
-One After 909 (1963/1969)
-It Won't Be Long (1963)
-I'm in Love (1963)- the song was given to The Fourmost
-I Call Your Name (1963)
-A Hard Day's Night (1964)
-I'll Be Back (1964)
-Anytime At All (1964)
-When I Get Home (1964)
-If I Fell (1964)
-I Should Have Known Better (1964)
-You Can't Do That (1964)
-I Feel Fine (1964)
-Help! (1965)
-It's Only Love (1965)
-Run For Your Life (1965)
"He was married; whereas none of my songs would have ‘catch you with another man’. It was never a concern of mine, at all, because I had a girlfriend and I would go with other girls; it was a perfectly open relationship so I wasn’t as worried about that as John was. A bit of a macho song." -Paul McCartney
"He was married; whereas none of my songs would have ‘catch you with another man’. It was never a concern of mine, at all, because I had a girlfriend and I would go with other girls; it was a perfectly open relationship so I wasn’t as worried about that as John was. A bit of a macho song." -Paul McCartney
-Wait (1965)
-Girl (1965)
-In My Life (1965)
-And Your Bird Can Sing (1966)
-Good Morning, Good Morning (1967)
-Jealous Guy (1971)- originally written in 1968 while John and Cynthia were in India
-Woman (1980)- Cynthia believed that John wrote this for all the women in his life, herself, Yoko and May
-We Got Married (1989; Paul McCartney)
"To me, it's all very what happened in the '60s when we were all in Liverpool. The first verse is very John and Cynthia: 'Going fast, coming soon, we made love in the afternoon', 'cause they were like art students and it was the first time I'd ever heard of anyone making love in the afternoon..." -Paul McCartney
"To me, it's all very what happened in the '60s when we were all in Liverpool. The first verse is very John and Cynthia: 'Going fast, coming soon, we made love in the afternoon', 'cause they were like art students and it was the first time I'd ever heard of anyone making love in the afternoon..." -Paul McCartney
Between the years of 1962 until 1966 when the Beatles stopped touring, John wrote a quite a lot of songs about him being homesick and wanting to come home to the woman who's waiting for him. And that woman was his wife, Cynthia.
As for recording, it's very well known that in the later years, Yoko Ono (especially) and Linda McCartney were fixtures in the studio while the Beatles' recorded with Pattie Boyd Harrison and Maureen Starkey visiting a lot of the time. Cynthia has said that she visited the recording studio quite a bit while Ringo one time stated that he barely remembered Cynthia there. Cynthia recalled taking John's half sisters, Julia and Jacqui, to the recording studio while the Beatles were working on Day Tripper. According to both Cynthia and Pattie, Cynthia did sang back-up vocals on one track Yellow Submarine.
"There were definitely two sides to John...his softer side came out in his initital love and tenderness for Cynthia." -Pete Best
I have often wondered if John and Cynthia ever attempted to have another child? So far from what I've read and listened, both of them were considering it. I even wondered if Cynthia did in fact get pregnant again but miscarried? Sadly I don't have any evidence of that other than in Cynthia's book 'John' that she would have gladly have had another child but it didn't happen- either she didn't get pregnant or she did suffer a miscarriage- it was pretty cryptic to me. John and Cynthia never used any kind of protection. I did find evidence of John and Cynthia wanting another child(ren)- it was said that there was already a nursery built into their new Kenwood home in Weybridge, Surrey. There was also an interview (unfortunately I can not find it) of John holding a stuffed bear and saying that it was for his future child that he planned to have with Cynthia. It's unfortunate as that never came to be. Perhaps it was John's intake of marijuana that slowed down his sperm count as it did when he got together with Yoko? (However I'd like to point out that Yoko got pregnant a total of four times- three were miscarriage and one was Sean) Or it could've been Cynthia, who did had a difficult pregnancy with Julian as she nearly miscarried in the early months and there was talk about Cynthia being Rhesus positive (I'm not a Doctor nor do I ever been pregnant so I have no idea what that is) while Julian was Rhesus negative. However, there were quite a number of rumors that Cynthia was pregnant again that John addressed them himself, denying that she was pregnant.
"Luella Parsons writes a whole article about all the rumors, spreading them all again...I'm getting another baby, which I'm not. Which isn't even a lousy rumor" -John
"It's just ridiculous you know, if anything does happen, we'll tell people, you know? We're not going to hide it. John's not ashamed if he has another baby, now why should he sort of keep it secret?" -Ringo Starr
"Oh, well, you see, you seem to have no libel laws over here, seeing as magazines write anything. One magazine called Truth- I won’t name it, but it’s called Truth, T-R-U-T-H- wrote a big pack of lies about how my wife broke the news to me about me baby and how she cried, and I went off, and Ringo said, ‘John, you must share your wife.’ It was a pack of lies, she’s not having a baby!" -John
"My wife having a baby, and the tagline to the page was, 'Ringo asks John to share wife,' you know" -John
"Yeah, as many as they come. Let them roll out. I like large families, the idea of it" -John
"I now take notice of other kids, and compare them to Julian. I think to myself, 'Thats clever, I don't think mine can do that' or vice versa. A lot of people like having children for their old age, I just want them because I like them." -John
Q: John, what do you think of all these magazines carrying the story of your wife soon to deliver you a new baby?
"Well, I just think it's potty, you know. Sort of mental-- the people who write them. Unless they get it off somebody who convinces them that these things are true, otherwise they must be a bit mental, you know." -John
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When John and Yoko started their romance in 1968, they started to dress a like and in the same color- especially in either white or black. They got well known for that. However, what is not known or barely noticed is that John had the "matching bug" with Cynthia as well. In the April of 1962 letter from Hamburg, John wrote to Cynthia that he got himself an overcoat with a belt so he could look just like Cynthia (shown above). In the color picture on the left of John and Cynthia from 1966 it looks like they were wearing his-and-hers bathing suits that were black and white. As for the black and white 1965 picture on the right, I've never seen or even heard about the color of the outfits they were wearing. From what I can tell, it looks like they were wearing his-and-hers suits with different color shirts. If there's ever an description or a colorized photo that proves different then I will delete it. But in the meantime it remains up until proven wrong.
"I now take notice of other kids, and compare them to Julian. I think to myself, 'Thats clever, I don't think mine can do that' or vice versa. A lot of people like having children for their old age, I just want them because I like them." -John
Q: John, what do you think of all these magazines carrying the story of your wife soon to deliver you a new baby?
"Well, I just think it's potty, you know. Sort of mental-- the people who write them. Unless they get it off somebody who convinces them that these things are true, otherwise they must be a bit mental, you know." -John
"Cynthia was a highly talented woman in her own right. She painted, she drew, she sculpted, she designed." -Julia Baird
The moment John and Yoko got together, they became partners in everything they could get their hands on: film, art, music. What I don't understand is that why didn't John did the same with Cynthia? Cynthia could also sing, she's also an artist (however I can't comment on her acting skills as she's never acted). Cynthia sung in her church's choir and John knew it as he did encouraged her to sing with him while goofing off at home and in private. If John wanted something more from his marriage, looking for a partner as well as a separate career away from The Beatles, then I think there could have been so much potential and upped their marriage as a team. However, John saw himself as the breadwinner of the family and saw Cynthia as a wife and mother to dote on him and Julian while running the house.
Q: "John, does your wife ever plan to join the show business fold?"
"No, not at all, no. Why should she?" -John
In 1995, Cynthia released her first single, Those Were the Days and Walking in the Rain.
"The last time I sang in front of an audience was when I was in Hoylake parish girls choir. My mum and dad and brothers were all smiling encouragingly at me. I haven't had the occasion to sing from that day to this, but even though my closest friends sniffed a bit when I told them I was making a record, they ate their words when they heard it." -Cynthia
In 2011, Cynthia covered The Beatles' In My Life on her birthday.
Cynthia, as mentioned before, is an artist in her own right. She has been in the art program since she was a teenager before going to Liverpool College of Art. Cynthia had her mind set on becoming an art teacher and was well on her way until she discovered that she was pregnant and dropped out of college. Like with her singing, John knew very well that Cynthia was an artist in her own right. When they first started going steady, John took her to Pete Best's home to help fix up their basement that the family was turning into a club to play music. Cynthia did some painting, including the spiderwebs in the above picture with John in front of her artwork. It still on display in the basement to this very day. It wasn't until after they were divorced and she released her first autobiography, A Twist of Lennon, that she started to share her artwork to the world. By 1982, after John's death, Cynthia started having exhibitions of her art work.
“All of a sudden I’d love to be a successful artist. The time is right for me. It’s like, well, starting over.” -Cynthia
"I've done a lot of commercial paintings over the years - designs for napkins and bedding and that sort of thing - and everything else I have done has always been connected with communication and art, but it has never been just for me, for my own personal pleasure. So it's a sort of full-circle situation, which is a joy." -Cynthia
I honestly don't think there was a problem with their sex life after they got married. I do believe that it fell short after John was away so much (at best by 1966) and started to record more with the Beatles in the studio and got more and more into drugs- especially marijuana and LSD. In public, John and Cynthia were a private couple and the picture above is a rare glimpse of their close moment while dancing at the Cannes Film Festival in 1965. However, John and Cynthia weren't shy of having their arms around each other, holding hands and kept close at events and vacations. They did have a playful relationship- in Miami at a 'millionaire's' home swimming, John played hide and seek with Cynthia; in Tobago while swimming in the ocean, John dunked Cynthia in the water by pulling her legs. However, Cynthia also had a mother-affect on John.
"I thought she behaved more like John's mother than his wife." -Pattie Boyd
They also managed to find private time for one another whenever they could possible. Meanwhile with Yoko, John posed naked a few times with her through out their relationship, including a film of them making love which appears on Imagine: John Lennon (I prefer not to watch that...)
"I thought she behaved more like John's mother than his wife." -Pattie Boyd
They also managed to find private time for one another whenever they could possible. Meanwhile with Yoko, John posed naked a few times with her through out their relationship, including a film of them making love which appears on Imagine: John Lennon (I prefer not to watch that...)
During their marriage, John was in four films: A Hard Day's Night, Help!, How I Won the War and Magical Mystery Tour. Cynthia visited the set of all. With A Hard Day's Night, Cynthia visited the set at least once and kept to the background, watching. The following year with Help! Cynthia, Maureen, Pattie or Jane did not go to the Bahamas with the Beatles
"I was gonna bring 'em out here, but they'd have to be just hanging 'round all the time, y'know. 'Cause that's all it is, y'know." -John
"We had been told to travel light. Leave wives and girlfriends at home. We let ourselves be talked into it, and as a result I spent two of the loneliest weeks of my life in the lush paradise of the Bahamas. Well, when we discussed going on to Austria with a brief stop-over in London, I told Walter Shenson, our producer. I was ready for a fight. 'I'm not going alone.' So he said, and it sounded almost too simple to be true, 'By all means, take Maureen along.' As a result Cynthia Lennon came along too, and so did George's Pattie. Jane Asher, Paul's girlfriend was busy and had to stay behind. But the other three girls took off happily to keep us company." -Ringo Starr
As Ringo mentioned, Cynthia, Pattie and Maureen were able to accompany their men to Austria to film more scenes of Help!
"They had their black hats on, their black capes. They had this amazing setting on this snow-covered mountain with a piano. They didn't exactly ski down the mountains with these torches because they had doubles, but it looked fantastic and every time I see that cape, I remember the whole scenario. We had a lot of fun, a lot of lunacy, a lot of madness, and we learned how to ski." -Cynthia
The following year, after the Beatles quit touring, John agreed to be in a film, How I Won the War. John wanted to go out first alone in order to find his acting feet before Cynthia could join him as well as Ringo and Maureen who visited John because he was feeling lonely. It was John's first solo project away from the Beatles.
"When the tour ended, he went to Spain to shoot this movie, and I met him two weeks later, in October 1966. It was one of the most beautiful moments as a couple. He was in the desert, stuck in the car. He opened the window and called me over. We made love right there" -Cynthia
The following year, the Beatles got to work on their next film, made for TV movie's Magical Mystery Tour. Both Cynthia and Julian, as well as Pattie and Maureen, visited the set. Both Cynthia and Julian even made a brief appearances in the film
"If you look very carefully you can see me, Cynthia, little Julian, Big Mal, Neil, and a few others desperately trying to make ourselves look like a crowd." -Alistair Taylor
"I will always have a soft spot for Paul for writing it and for his compassion when I was in desperate need of warmth" -Cynthia
John and Paul met in 1957 and were already bandmates when John met Cynthia later that year. When Paul started going out steady with Dorothy Rhone, the couples double dated a lot. While the Beatles were in Hamburg, Cynthia and Dot became close friends; Dot even moved next door to Cynthia's apartment. As mentioned before, both dyed their hair blonde and wardrobe to copy Brigitte Bardot and traveled up to Hamburg to visit their boyfriends. Dot and Paul were called it quits in 1962 and the following year, Paul met and started going out with Jane Asher for the next 5 years. Paul did attend John and Cynthia's wedding and when the Lennons moved out to Weybridge in 1964, Paul often went there to either hang out or to write songs with John, using Cynthia as an audience. When John left Cynthia for Yoko, Paul was the only one from the Beatles' family circle to drive out to visit Cynthia and Julian, writing Hey Jude along the way. During the visit, Paul presented Cynthia with a rose and proposed the idea of marriage (as a joke...or was it?). Paul was going through his own break-up with Jane after she caught him in bed with another woman; the only difference between the break-ups was that John left Cynthia while Paul felt remorse and was depressed until he thought of Linda Eastman more and more.
“When John and Cynthia broke up, I was devastated. I tried bribing Cynthia and John to get back together. I even asked Cynthia to marry me. She declined.” -Paul
"When John and Cynthia got married, it didn't really work. There was a beautiful kid and they were quite happy for a while, but my estimation of it was that Cynthia wanted to tie John down to the pipe-and-slippers nice life. Of course, John was never ready for that...So John and Cynthia were splitting up and I felt practiculary sorry for Julian. I had known them for so long. We had hung out since John's art school days when I had a girlfriend called Dot and John had Cynthia, and we used to foursome it a lot and go to parties together. Since then, I'd seen them get married, and seen them have Julian. I thought as a friend of the family, I would motor out to Weybridge and tell them that everything was all right to try and cheer them up basically, and see how they were." -Paul
Paul promised Cynthia that he would keep in touch but as it turned out, it was sporadic as Paul started his new life with Linda and after the break up of the Beatles, he formed Wings. In the mid 1980s, Linda sent Cynthia a postcard inviting her over for a cup of tea as it's been a long time so they can catch up (I would love to know more about their relationship, if any, as Linda entered the picture after Cynthia exited) and in the early 1990s, Cynthia attended Paul's concert in Liverpool. In 2006, Paul and Cynthia crossed paths at the Beatles/Cirque du Soleil's LOVE Last Vegas show. Since then, I don't think they've seen or spoken to each other.
"The art school party in Liverpool, in a flat in the students' accomdation, was the first all night party I ever went to...I puked up next morning. Cynthia was there, and I remember saying drunkenly to her 'I wish I had a nice girl like you'" -George Harrison
Not long after Paul and John met, George soon followed as he and Paul knew each other for a few years by living close to one another and shared the same bus ride. The young boys bonded over music and Paul convinced John to let George auditioned to be in the band. John consented and George was in. By that time, the romance between John and Cynthia were blossoming and George became a tag-along.
"When George was a kid, he used to follow me and my first girlfriend, Cynthia- who became my wife- around. Cynthia and I would come out of the art school together and he'd be hovering around like those kids at the gate of the Dakota now. He was literally like that! Cyn and I would be going to a coffee shop or a movie and George would follow us down the street two hundred yards behind. And Cyn would say 'Who is that guy? What he want?' I'd say, 'He just wants to hang out. Should we take him with us?' She'd say, 'Oh ok, let's take him to the bloody movies'. So we'd allow him to come to the movies with us." -John (1980)
One time George raved about Cynthia to John, except there was one flaw- he thought Cynthia had teeth like a horse! Luckily, George saw past that minor flaw and was friends with Cynthia. George did attend John and Cynthia's wedding and after he met Pattie Boyd, the two couples went on two trips together- Ireland (which was cut short due to the media intruding) and Tahiti. In 1965, George, Pattie, John and Cynthia went out to dinner at George's dentist's home and it turned out that the dentist laced LSD in the sugar so when they had the tea, they had a dose of LSD. They freaked out after the Dentist informed them and left while they were tripping out. They (along with Ringo, Paul, Maureen and Jane) went out to nightclubs together and were frequent visitors to each other's homes.
"He was paranoid about being short-sided...it was funny when Cynthia was out with him, they'd sit outside in the car, arguing as to whose turn it was to put the glasses on to go in (a club) and see where we were sitting." -George
After John and Cynthia divorced, George's friendship with Cynthia dwindled. George and Pattie separated and divorced in the 1970s and married Olivia. Although they both thought fondly of each other and George did kept in sporadic touch with Julian until his death in 2001. Cynthia released a statement after his death
"This is a very sad day for myself and everyone who knew and loved George. He was part of my teenage years, he was part of my marriage to John, in fact, a very important and unforgetable part of my life. He was part of my family. George may have departed from this World that we all know, but his generosity of talent and spirit he bequeathed to all he left behind. A spirit that searched for the truth and I'm sure has finally found peace. My love and condolences to Olivia and Dhani. I know his memory will give them immense strength and courage, the memory of a very special human being" -Cynthia
"John had Julian and I had Zak so we'd try to do the fatherly things. We'd try to do manly things too; we'd go to the pub and bring Maureen and Cynthia a Babycham or something- a real Liverpool attitude" -Ringo Starr
Before Ringo joined the Beatles in 1962, Cynthia was aware of who he was as a drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes as she's seen him play live many times. After he joined the band and eventually found out that John was married, when they 'officially' met when John brought Ringo over to their newlywed apartment, they got off on the wrong foot. Cynthia wasn't aware of Ringo's childhood illnesses at the time when she offered Ringo a spicy dinner but eventually their wariness wore off and they got to be close friends. Ringo and John got closer after Ringo married Maureen Cox and they lived about 10 minutes away from each other in Weybridge. Cynthia and Maureen had lots in common and became close friends that continued on until Maureen's death in 1994 (you can read more of their friendship in my website, Cyn and Mo). The Lennons and Starkeys went to Tobago and Trinidad together and when John was filming in Spain for How I Won the War, Ringo and Maureen went over for a visit and hung out with Cynthia while watching the filming.
"I don’t think his marriage will affect The Beatles’ popularity really, but there might be some shuffling of fans from one of the Beatles to another, at least that’s what happened to when news that I was married was revealed.” –John
“I don’t think the two of us being married has had any bad effects on our popularity. Remember, when it got out that both Ringo and I were married, there hadn’t been anybody in such a position as we were in, who had got married. It was Silver disc as opposed to Gold disc, people who’d get married before us!” –John
“When John and Cynthia broke up, I was devastated. I tried bribing Cynthia and John to get back together. I even asked Cynthia to marry me. She declined.” -Paul
"When John and Cynthia got married, it didn't really work. There was a beautiful kid and they were quite happy for a while, but my estimation of it was that Cynthia wanted to tie John down to the pipe-and-slippers nice life. Of course, John was never ready for that...So John and Cynthia were splitting up and I felt practiculary sorry for Julian. I had known them for so long. We had hung out since John's art school days when I had a girlfriend called Dot and John had Cynthia, and we used to foursome it a lot and go to parties together. Since then, I'd seen them get married, and seen them have Julian. I thought as a friend of the family, I would motor out to Weybridge and tell them that everything was all right to try and cheer them up basically, and see how they were." -Paul
Paul promised Cynthia that he would keep in touch but as it turned out, it was sporadic as Paul started his new life with Linda and after the break up of the Beatles, he formed Wings. In the mid 1980s, Linda sent Cynthia a postcard inviting her over for a cup of tea as it's been a long time so they can catch up (I would love to know more about their relationship, if any, as Linda entered the picture after Cynthia exited) and in the early 1990s, Cynthia attended Paul's concert in Liverpool. In 2006, Paul and Cynthia crossed paths at the Beatles/Cirque du Soleil's LOVE Last Vegas show. Since then, I don't think they've seen or spoken to each other.
Not long after Paul and John met, George soon followed as he and Paul knew each other for a few years by living close to one another and shared the same bus ride. The young boys bonded over music and Paul convinced John to let George auditioned to be in the band. John consented and George was in. By that time, the romance between John and Cynthia were blossoming and George became a tag-along.
"When George was a kid, he used to follow me and my first girlfriend, Cynthia- who became my wife- around. Cynthia and I would come out of the art school together and he'd be hovering around like those kids at the gate of the Dakota now. He was literally like that! Cyn and I would be going to a coffee shop or a movie and George would follow us down the street two hundred yards behind. And Cyn would say 'Who is that guy? What he want?' I'd say, 'He just wants to hang out. Should we take him with us?' She'd say, 'Oh ok, let's take him to the bloody movies'. So we'd allow him to come to the movies with us." -John (1980)
One time George raved about Cynthia to John, except there was one flaw- he thought Cynthia had teeth like a horse! Luckily, George saw past that minor flaw and was friends with Cynthia. George did attend John and Cynthia's wedding and after he met Pattie Boyd, the two couples went on two trips together- Ireland (which was cut short due to the media intruding) and Tahiti. In 1965, George, Pattie, John and Cynthia went out to dinner at George's dentist's home and it turned out that the dentist laced LSD in the sugar so when they had the tea, they had a dose of LSD. They freaked out after the Dentist informed them and left while they were tripping out. They (along with Ringo, Paul, Maureen and Jane) went out to nightclubs together and were frequent visitors to each other's homes.
"He was paranoid about being short-sided...it was funny when Cynthia was out with him, they'd sit outside in the car, arguing as to whose turn it was to put the glasses on to go in (a club) and see where we were sitting." -George
After John and Cynthia divorced, George's friendship with Cynthia dwindled. George and Pattie separated and divorced in the 1970s and married Olivia. Although they both thought fondly of each other and George did kept in sporadic touch with Julian until his death in 2001. Cynthia released a statement after his death
"This is a very sad day for myself and everyone who knew and loved George. He was part of my teenage years, he was part of my marriage to John, in fact, a very important and unforgetable part of my life. He was part of my family. George may have departed from this World that we all know, but his generosity of talent and spirit he bequeathed to all he left behind. A spirit that searched for the truth and I'm sure has finally found peace. My love and condolences to Olivia and Dhani. I know his memory will give them immense strength and courage, the memory of a very special human being" -Cynthia
Before Ringo joined the Beatles in 1962, Cynthia was aware of who he was as a drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes as she's seen him play live many times. After he joined the band and eventually found out that John was married, when they 'officially' met when John brought Ringo over to their newlywed apartment, they got off on the wrong foot. Cynthia wasn't aware of Ringo's childhood illnesses at the time when she offered Ringo a spicy dinner but eventually their wariness wore off and they got to be close friends. Ringo and John got closer after Ringo married Maureen Cox and they lived about 10 minutes away from each other in Weybridge. Cynthia and Maureen had lots in common and became close friends that continued on until Maureen's death in 1994 (you can read more of their friendship in my website, Cyn and Mo). The Lennons and Starkeys went to Tobago and Trinidad together and when John was filming in Spain for How I Won the War, Ringo and Maureen went over for a visit and hung out with Cynthia while watching the filming.
"I don’t think his marriage will affect The Beatles’ popularity really, but there might be some shuffling of fans from one of the Beatles to another, at least that’s what happened to when news that I was married was revealed.” –John
“I don’t think the two of us being married has had any bad effects on our popularity. Remember, when it got out that both Ringo and I were married, there hadn’t been anybody in such a position as we were in, who had got married. It was Silver disc as opposed to Gold disc, people who’d get married before us!” –John
"I mainly saw John in that period because we lived a couple of blocks from each other. We used to spend practically every weekend together. We'd edit 8mm film and have fun- sometimes hysterical fun. I'd walk home. .One Bonfire Night that we had at my place, John and I decided to show our kids some fireworks. We went and bought all these fizzy ones. We'd smoke a lot of herbalized stuff so we didn't want anything really loud. We were doing this whole set up and sitting around, relaxing a little and we went outside to give the babies this big show and everything we bought just exploded! Exploded! What the kids must have thought, I don't know because the grown-ups were going 'Ow! Ow! Aaaagh!' We were so shocked we had to go back inside. And that's what makes our children what they are today:" -Ringo
"Ringo had this habit of lighting up two cigarettes, one for Maureen at the same time that he lit his own. I remember thinking it was a loving thing to do and wishing John did it for me. But that would have been too obviously demonstrative, maybe, for John." -Cynthia
Q: Does marriage agree with you?
"Yes, it does" -Ringo
"Yes" -John
After John and Cynthia got divorced, Ringo and Maureen did kept in touch with her especially after the Beatles' broke up in 1970. They, along with John and Yoko, attended Cynthia's housewarming party not long after she married Roberto Bassanini. Ringo and Maureen's marriage eventually ended in 1975. Ringo did see Cynthia in 1974 while in Los Angeles when she was there with Julian to visit John while he was separated from Yoko. When John was killed in 1980, Ringo called Maureen with the news- Cynthia was staying with her while on a business trip regarding her restaurant at the time and Maureen screamed, waking Cynthia up. Maureen gave Cynthia the phone and heard from Ringo that John had died. In the mid 1980s, Cynthia and Ringo attended a charity event with Pattie and Ringo's wife Barbara, happily posing for pictures. In 2006, Ringo and Cynthia crossed paths when they both attended the Beatles/Cirque du Soleil's LOVE Last Vegas show. I'm not sure if Ringo and Cynthia have kept in touch today although Ringo did released a book of his photographs, Photograph with Cynthia in a few pictures.
"The four of them always seemed to me very vulnerable. I was older than all of them and I felt like their big sister. I thought they needed one, although I'm pretty sure they didn't think they did. The Beatles were married to each other, and in many ways the girls were superfluous." -Cynthia
"I always got on great with the others. I was a little bit older than them, so I had that edge, and I was also John's girlfriend, so we had a lot of fun together. What John did was accepted and if I was John's girlfriend that was accepted as well." -Cynthia
"But, the last time I saw them [Paul and Ringo], which is after quite a long time, was in Las Vegas when they did the show Love. That was a reunion that happened for the first time since before we were divorced, which was really lovely." -Cynthia
"I thought John and Cynthia were brilliant together. Despite everything that's been said about them since, they seemed to be a perfect couple. This was at their home. I decided to shoot them as a kind of emblematic family. Cynthia with a mop, John with a workman's tool and Julian with a gold spoon, as the child who has been born into the rich set-up. We set it up as a kind of theatre-piece, and John loved it. As soon as he saw the hoe, he grabbed it and said, 'I'm the breadwinner here, you know.'" -Robert Whitaker (Photographer)
"As far as our marriage was concerned, we got on great. It wasn't the greatest whizzo-active relationship and once he became a Beatle we didn't go out much and see the sights, as husband and wife. But we had holidays with the other Beatles and we were strong as a unit in that home." -Cynthia
"By 1965 John and Cyn had settled into a relationship best described as one of peaceful coexistence. They had nothing in common, as both well knew, yet their marriage was far from unhappy. One of the only arguments I can recall was over Cyn's desire to buy a Porsche; John strenuously objected to the idea of her driving so dangerously fast a car, but, in the end, relented." -Pete Shotton
"Over the years, long after the break up of John and Cynthia's marriage, and his death, there have been many articles in newspapers and books written, and not all of these stories are true. Things have been written without the consideration of the persons that have been mentioned. I have read many stories containing information that was exaggerated and totally different from the actual truth and happenings. I had a very private relationship with John and his family and I decided to keep my memories private" -Dorothy Jarlett (The Lennons' housekeeper)
"John began some more recording sessions in London and we ended up spending a lot of time with Cynthia. She was a kind person. She wasn't at all pushy or ambitious, and never had been as far as John was concerned. She seemed happy with him as he was. She hadn't let the money go to her head and she was as natural as ever." -Julia Baird
"I haven't been to a proper barber for years. George often cuts my hair when we're on the road and Cyn does it when I'm at home" -John
"Cynthia is charming, gentle, and unassuming. She is spontaneous, too. One night in the Hotel Polynesie on Bora Bora, a waitress admired one of her rings, and she wanted to give it to her - and would have if John hadn’t vetoed the idea" -Graham Rowe (Tahiti tourguide)
"It was never an easy marriage...During their time together, I often visited them at Kenwood, John's luxurious house in Weybridge, and it was a much more equal relationship than it is portrayed in any of the numerous biographies. Certainly, Cynthia liked her sleep and used to go to bed early, which left John to go off into London and behaved like any self-respecting rock star would. But Cynthia was nothing like the clinging wifey that people who have never met the couple seem to imagine. And John was nothing like the rakish, thoughtless, faithless husband" -Alistair Taylor
"I sleep late, Cyn has to get up early for the baby, unless we've got her mother over or a nurse, somebody to look after him. We're not a very normal family. Cyn and I go out all night, just as if we were still engaged" -John
"I haven't got a clue what's going to happen in my house this year. All I know is that I'll wake up and it'll be Christmas. The rest of it is up to Cyn. It's a woman's time of year anyway." -John
"...I'm not forgetful around the house. I can remember things I am interested in very clearly but other things are a jumble in my mind. For instance, Cyn and I have moved into this new house in Surrey. Well, the other night, the chauffeur was taking me home and he said, 'Where to?' And do you know, I hadn't a clue! Even though we have been living there a month. I couldn't remember where I lived! We drove around for 3 hours before we got from London to my house." -John
"I swear sometimes, but I hate to hear women swear, or for men to swear in front of women. Cyn has heard me swear when I'm angry, but she wouldn't like it if anyone started trying to butter her. If they apologized afterwards, she would like them for respecting her though, but she wouldn't like the swearing..." -John
"I think that with my wife - I hate saying that word it sounds sort of formal - with Cyn, it starts off sort of 'well he's hooked. We'll sort of like 'em both, we'll like his wife' but a lot of 'em are very genuine, yeah, you can see through letters. You know, the letters you get where they're addressed to Cyn that say 'I like you', you know, and this and that - or, I don't know, they say all sorts of things - are genuine. A lot of them are genuine. Some of them are fake. You can read through them a mile, or sort of 'Hello Mrs Lennon, may I call you Cyn? Could you get me 95 autographed photographs of the boys?' Then you know they're just, you know, just in it..." -John
"At Kenwood, Cyn kept herself busy looking after the cooking and the baby, and gave the Lennon household a sensibly, orderly, and almost bourgeois character that John, the non-conformist, the rebel, secretly found comforting" -Pete Shotton
Q: How about the French girls compared to the British girls?
"Yeah well, I'm married so I didn't notice 'em." -John
Q: Were any of you in love...?
"Me!" -John
"Yes, he's married" -Paul
"That's right!" -John
Q(to Paul): Would you get married to the others?
"No, I don't like marriage, no good, no good marriage" -Paul
"It's good! hmm mmm mmm" -John (pretending to rock a baby in his arms)
Q:Was your wife expensive?
"Quite, quite" -John
"How much did she cost when you bought her?" -Paul
"She was 50 pounds in Nairobi" -John
Q: Mister Lennon, what do you think Misses Lennon thinks of the Beatles?
"She rather likes them." -John
Q: (asks question away from microphone about whether Cynthia was jealous of all the female fans)
"No, because I don't have a go at them." -John
Q: We heard that you were all married.
"Only John." -Ringo
Q: (to Paul) You're not married?
"No, John's the only one." -Paul
Q: Which one is married?
"John is married. We'll all get married in the end." -Ringo
"Will you?" -John
"In the end. Two or three years, you know. Plenty of time." -Ringo
Q: John, how does your wife like all these girls making all this fuss over you?
"She loves it" -John
Q: Out of all the places in England you could have chosen, why did you pick Weybridge?
"Because it was the nearest at the time when I suddenly decided I’m gonna have a house for me and me wife. Somebody said, ‘There’s one up there’, and I said, ‘Right, I’ll having it.’ That’s all there is to it." -John
Q: Because John is married, does he find that fans react in a different way?
"I don't. No. I might have less 'cause I'm married but the ones I have got react the same." -John
Q: Paul, you're the only unmarried Beatle, or are you the only married Beatle?
"You've got it mixed up, Jean. John's the only married one. All the rest of us are unmarried and single and free, and everything." -Paul
Q: (to John) And you're the married one, right?
"That's me, Jean." -John
Q: John, how does your wife feel about girls screaming and running after you?
"She knows they never catch me" -John
Q: (to John) What kind of girls do you prefer?
"My wife." -John
Q: Your wife? What kind of girl is she?
"She's a nice girl." -John
Q: Ringo, when you marry, what kind of girl are you gonna...
"Oh I dunno. I haven't sorted one out yet. I like 'em all." -Ringo
Q: (to George) What kind of girl do you like?
"John's wife." -George
"I told you not to say that! Nobody likes a smart aleck." -John
Q: "Has your wife ever seen one of your concerts?"
"Yeah, she used to see a lot of them. She hasn't seen us for quite a bit, though. She enjoys 'em, but it's so... She gets to see us when we stay somewhere in England and do a show" -John
Q: John, have you called your wife yet?
"No, she's in a country where they don't have phones" -John
Q: John, how old is your son, Julian?
"Two and a half when I left. He might be five" -John
Q: “John, I think your wife is just beautiful!”
“Thank you.” -John
Q: "And uhh, Paul's marriage..."
"Yes, it's not true. It's wrong. It's George's marriage." -Paul
Q: "George is married."
"These three are married." -Paul
Q: "Do your families associate with one another socially?""I haven't got a clue what's going to happen in my house this year. All I know is that I'll wake up and it'll be Christmas. The rest of it is up to Cyn. It's a woman's time of year anyway." -John
"I swear sometimes, but I hate to hear women swear, or for men to swear in front of women. Cyn has heard me swear when I'm angry, but she wouldn't like it if anyone started trying to butter her. If they apologized afterwards, she would like them for respecting her though, but she wouldn't like the swearing..." -John
"I think that with my wife - I hate saying that word it sounds sort of formal - with Cyn, it starts off sort of 'well he's hooked. We'll sort of like 'em both, we'll like his wife' but a lot of 'em are very genuine, yeah, you can see through letters. You know, the letters you get where they're addressed to Cyn that say 'I like you', you know, and this and that - or, I don't know, they say all sorts of things - are genuine. A lot of them are genuine. Some of them are fake. You can read through them a mile, or sort of 'Hello Mrs Lennon, may I call you Cyn? Could you get me 95 autographed photographs of the boys?' Then you know they're just, you know, just in it..." -John
"At Kenwood, Cyn kept herself busy looking after the cooking and the baby, and gave the Lennon household a sensibly, orderly, and almost bourgeois character that John, the non-conformist, the rebel, secretly found comforting" -Pete Shotton
Q: How about the French girls compared to the British girls?
"Yeah well, I'm married so I didn't notice 'em." -John
Q: Were any of you in love...?
"Me!" -John
"Yes, he's married" -Paul
"That's right!" -John
Q(to Paul): Would you get married to the others?
"No, I don't like marriage, no good, no good marriage" -Paul
"It's good! hmm mmm mmm" -John (pretending to rock a baby in his arms)
Q:Was your wife expensive?
"Quite, quite" -John
"How much did she cost when you bought her?" -Paul
"She was 50 pounds in Nairobi" -John
Q: Mister Lennon, what do you think Misses Lennon thinks of the Beatles?
"She rather likes them." -John
Q: (asks question away from microphone about whether Cynthia was jealous of all the female fans)
"No, because I don't have a go at them." -John
Q: We heard that you were all married.
"Only John." -Ringo
Q: (to Paul) You're not married?
"No, John's the only one." -Paul
Q: Which one is married?
"John is married. We'll all get married in the end." -Ringo
"Will you?" -John
"In the end. Two or three years, you know. Plenty of time." -Ringo
Q: John, how does your wife like all these girls making all this fuss over you?
"She loves it" -John
Q: Out of all the places in England you could have chosen, why did you pick Weybridge?
"Because it was the nearest at the time when I suddenly decided I’m gonna have a house for me and me wife. Somebody said, ‘There’s one up there’, and I said, ‘Right, I’ll having it.’ That’s all there is to it." -John
Q: Because John is married, does he find that fans react in a different way?
"I don't. No. I might have less 'cause I'm married but the ones I have got react the same." -John
Q: Paul, you're the only unmarried Beatle, or are you the only married Beatle?
"You've got it mixed up, Jean. John's the only married one. All the rest of us are unmarried and single and free, and everything." -Paul
Q: (to John) And you're the married one, right?
"That's me, Jean." -John
Q: John, how does your wife feel about girls screaming and running after you?
"She knows they never catch me" -John
Q: (to John) What kind of girls do you prefer?
"My wife." -John
Q: Your wife? What kind of girl is she?
"She's a nice girl." -John
Q: Ringo, when you marry, what kind of girl are you gonna...
"Oh I dunno. I haven't sorted one out yet. I like 'em all." -Ringo
Q: (to George) What kind of girl do you like?
"John's wife." -George
"I told you not to say that! Nobody likes a smart aleck." -John
Q: "Has your wife ever seen one of your concerts?"
"Yeah, she used to see a lot of them. She hasn't seen us for quite a bit, though. She enjoys 'em, but it's so... She gets to see us when we stay somewhere in England and do a show" -John
Q: John, have you called your wife yet?
"No, she's in a country where they don't have phones" -John
Q: John, how old is your son, Julian?
"Two and a half when I left. He might be five" -John
Q: “John, I think your wife is just beautiful!”
“Thank you.” -John
Q: "And uhh, Paul's marriage..."
"Yes, it's not true. It's wrong. It's George's marriage." -Paul
Q: "George is married."
"These three are married." -Paul
"Oh yeah. Our wives mix together. Our parents don't mix together much. Well, no, I mean, they don't see each other every day." -John
"No, it's still three down, and one to go." -Paul
"Oh, thank you!" -John
Q: Do you trust anybody implicity.
"Only the other three, and my wife." -John
"Should we have waited, do you reckon? If Cyn hadn't been pregnant, would I have married her? If the Beatles get really big, maybe I could have a Hollywood film star for a wife!" -John
Q: I think one famous person in the family was enough
"We can always have a film star or two as well, can't we? I'd hate to come home to an empty place. I couldn't live on my own" -John
Q: You know, you love your own company. Even Cyn says you can go for days without speaking to her. She feels a million miles away from you.
"Ah, but she's not, is she? She's in the kitchen putting the kettle on." -John
I would like to bring this to attention: for so many accounts, Cynthia included, they would say that John would be either laying or sitting at home with his mind a million miles away and while Cynthia talked to him, he would ignore her. Cynthia claimed she didn't mind this as John was under pressure and/or creating his next song. However, people failed to realized that Pattie was going through the exact same thing! In her book, Wonderful Tonight, Pattie told a very similar story: George would be a million miles away while Pattie would talk to him. Like Cynthia, she didn't mind as George was getting his creative juices going. What's sad to me is that when Cynthia told that story, people just ran with it and even made it as a bad thing while when Pattie told it, it barely went unnoticed. Well I noticed it! I have to wonder if Jane Asher, Linda McCartney, Heather Mills and Nancy Shevell have been going through the same thing with Paul whenever he zoned out to another dimension? If John and George done it, then I could see Paul doing the same thing as well.
“I thought the three of them were a fabulous family. I never discussed with John why he left Cynthia.” -Robert Whitaker
There were a few factors that dissolved the marriage of John and Cynthia. Drugs, John's infidelity, lots of time spent apart due to touring and recording- it was a lot to hold on to to survive. However, right from the start, John and Cynthia were different people with very few things in common: art, nearly blind, readers, lost a parent at the age of 17; yet somehow they managed to make it work for 10 years they were together. John cheated pretty much from the start- most notably when the Silver Beatles went to Hamburg- as prior to the trip, John and Cynthia were practically inseparable. Drugs started to come in during that time, first with pills that riled up the band to keep up the energy of performing for long hours. By 1964, the Beatles got into marijuana and the following year, LSD entered into the picture. Cynthia did try all three- mainly to keep up with John's energy- but they did not simply agreed with her. The pills made her dizzy, marijuana made her paranoid and the LSD gave her nightmarish trips. Although Cynthia did not mind too much about marijuana for John as it helped to relax him but she did mind LSD, noticing that John was pulling away from her. John noticed it but his solution was for her to join him. Cynthia did try LSD by a total of 3 times- 1 that was snuck in, 1 as a carried away along with the party and the final time to try to fix her marriage. Then came Yoko Ono, and as you know, the rest was history. The Beatles broke up not long after John and Cynthia's divorce
“We always knew the Beatles came first and wives second.” –Cynthia
"Norwegian Wood is my song completely. It was about an affair I was having. I was very careful and paranoid because I didn't want my wife, Cyn, to know that there really was something going on outside of the household. I'd always hadsome kind of affairs going, so I was trying to be sophisticated in writing about an affair, but in such a smoke-screen way that you couldn't tell. But I can't remember any specific woman it had to do with." -John
“Well I don’t remember who it was about… and if I do, I don’t want to mention the name, because there are certain people who I really don’t want to mention.” -Cynthia
"There was nothing basically wrong with my marriage to Cyn. It was just like an amber light. It wasn't on go and it wasn't on stop. I suppose that me being away so much during the early years of our marriage, I never did feel like the average married man." -John (1968)
"I'd never known love like this before, and it hit me so hard that I had to halt my marriage to Cyn. And don't think that it was a reckless decision, but I felt very deeply about it and all the implications that would be involved. My marriage to Cyn was not unhappy. But it was just a normal marital state where nothing happened and which we continued to sustain. You sustain it until you meet somebody who suddenly sets you alight." -John (1968)
"Towards the end of the marriage, John began to suspect that Cynthia was being unfaithful. And like many adulterers he absolutely frantic with rage at the thought of another man making love to his own wife. But because he was out all the time, and out of his mind much of the rest of the time, it was very hard for him to check up on what Cynthia was up to. That is why he used his friend 'Magic' Alex Madras to follow her. I don't think Cynthia was unfaithful to John before he humiliatingly ended the marriage by moving Yoko into their home, but I know that John thought she was. John quizzed me on a trip to Italy taken by Cynthia earlier in 1968. I hadn't arranged it, which was unusual but not unprecedented. Occasionally, one or other of the Beatles or their wives would take off on a trip they had organised themselves. But John thought Cynthia was being deliberately secretive about this Italian trip. He wouldn't tell me why he wanted to know, but he wanted to find out every detail of every conversation I'd had with Cynthia over the recent past. And such details were not the normal subject of John's interest. He was consumed with jealousy. He might not have loved Cynthia as passionately or as exclusively as he once had, but he sure as hell was not prepared to put up with her loving someone else." -Alistair Taylor
"I was married from before The Beatles left Liverpool, that never made any difference. Cyn didn't have a career like Yoko does, but Pattie had a career, that never upset it. Maureen is a fantastic artist in her own right as well, apart from bringing up that tribe of Ringo's. She also is an artist, and it is nothing to do with the wives." -John (1971)
"It was said I never loved Cyn. That's far from the truth. We were young, bigheaded, and got into a physical relationship too soon. Perhaps if we took things slow, we would have made it. I know we would have made it." -John (1974)
"Yoko had 10 years and I had 10 years and I would rather have had the 10 years I had than the ones she did. I had the raw talent and the raw human being, before the sycophants arrived." -Cynthia
“I knew the man up until our divorce – after that I didn’t know the man, but it didn’t stop me caring about him and worrying because of the complete change that I saw in him. He’d lost his sense of humour and he got aggressive; he wasn’t for the world any more, he was just for Yoko. Before that he opened his arms and embraced the world with his wit and humour – afterwards he was a completely different kind of person.” -Cynthia
"Everyone told me to go for more, but I couldn't do it, I took what I needed and I think it's made me a better person." -Cynthia
"I knew I had to keep away from the stuff for everyone's sake, but mostly for Julian's. I thought John could take care of himself, but he couldn't. Luckily for me I had a strong instinct for survival. But I was an absolute bore to everybody. They did their utmost to get me to go on it. 'Oh it's beautiful,' they'd say. 'Come on, let's be brothers and sisters.' I always hoped John would understand that you don't have to do these things to be yourself. They all thought drugs would enhance something in their lives. I suppose I thought that just by being me I'd make some sort of point. But it didn't work. I could see John being sucked away into a dream world. I tried to fight it but the dream world won." -Cynthia
“No, he didn’t say that he’d slept with hundreds, he said he’d had affairs and that he’d slept with women, not hundreds. I wasn’t that stupid, not to know that when the boys were on the road anything could happen.” -Cynthia
“Their roadie Mal Evans was a good friend. I met him in LA and asked him then. He would say ‘I’m not going to give any details, but it happened all the time, all pop stars did it’. They’d need women – he’d go out, find the good-looking ones, and bring them up. That was the way it happened.” -Cynthia
"I guess it's my boring, down-to-earth attitude that probably sent John running and was the end of the marriage. I see things in black and white rather than grey or colours. It's just my upbringing. I'm a realist" -Cynthia
This is very good and informative. I read an article in the liverpool echo many years ago that cyn did visit the set of AHDN. This article is linked in one of the yahoo groups, however, it is currently dead. Anyway, it about this photographer who had pictures of cyn and john on the set and they had never been published. The title of the article is 'Beatles at Play." This is going about 6 years back.
ReplyDeleteWhere did this 1968 quote "People think i've stopped loving her. They're wrong" come from?
Thank you! I'll look into the A Hard Day's Night set visit and will edit it
DeleteI found the 1968 quote floating around online but I couldn't find the source.
Loved reading this! Thank you so much for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteI edited it with the A Hard Day's Night movie set visit added, correcting my mistake.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog you wrote, with lots of wonderful information. How can anyone read those quotes about their early marriage (how she married a broke art student, etc.) and think that they weren't in love or that their marriage didn't matter?
ReplyDeleteOh, hello again. I was wondering... Did you find the source for this sentence:
ReplyDelete"It was said I never loved Cyn. That's far from the truth. We were young, bigheaded, and got into a physical relationship too soon. Perhaps if we took things slow, we would have made it. I know we would have made it." -John (1974)
I am crazy looking for the interview where this comes from.
I honestly don't know where that quote from John came from. I found it a long time ago and I've seen it get around more than I can count. I really hope the origin is discovered! Good Luck!
DeleteHi,
DeleteIt's from 'she loves you'by Jude Southerland Kessle
It has a reference of where he got the quote from as well.
Also absolutely fantastic article btw!
Oh, I had written another comment before, but now I see that it didn't get to you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the article and all the information you gave here. I am writing an article of my own (in Spanish) and this compilation is going to help me greatly. The only problem is going to be finding all those sources to be quoted properly (you know, book, date of publication, publishing house, pages, etc).
I quite agree with you, actually. Thanks to sites like yours I started to see I had been lied about Cynthia and May Pang. And reading and reading, I found out some things I want to write about. Thank you for the job.
Hi Jeannette. You've included some pix of John wearing his favourite leather caps which were designed by my mom, Helen Anderson. There's a great back story, some of which is told on her website where you can also purchase a replica cap - https://www.helenandersondesigns.com. My mom is still in great health and working hard, so if you would like a guest blog post from her please get in touch with her (facebook is best! - https://www.facebook.com/helenandersondesigns) All my best, Danielle
ReplyDeleteJohn and Cyn actually look like each other, a sign of a true soul mate match. I don't know why kind of hypnosis Yoko Oh-no was using on John but she is just too much by staying in the studio with the other Beatles when they were working, I believe, yes, that had a lot to do with the Beatles breakup.
ReplyDeleteYoko did have a daughter named Kyoko and she was the child of her marriage to Tony Cox.
ReplyDelete