Cynthia Lennon Called John Lennon ‘Cowardly,’ ‘Sinister,’ and ‘Cruel’ for the Way He Divorced Her

After Cynthia Lennon discovered John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s affair, she knew her marriage was over. Still, it took time before Lennon told her he wanted a divorce. The way he dropped this news on her was incredibly impersonal. Cynthia believed that it showed an immense amount of cruelty.  

Cynthia Lennon said John Lennon’s method of divorcing her was cruel and cowardly

In 1968, Cynthia returned home from a vacation to find Lennon and Ono sitting in the kitchen, wearing bathrobes. She fled the home, certain her marriage was over. When she returned to the house after a few days of sheltering with a friend, Lennon behaved as though nothing had happened. He assured her that he wanted their marriage to work and that she had no reason to worry. 

Not long after, Lennon left for a business trip in New York with Paul McCartney, and Cynthia, her son Julian, and her mother went to Italy. While there, Lennon’s friend “Magic” Alex Mardas arrived at her hotel with a message from Lennon.

“I asked Alex what was going on,” Cynthia wrote in her book John. “He said, ‘I’ve come with a message from John. He’s going to divorce you, take Julian away from you, and send you back to Hoylake.”

Cynthia felt weak with horror. She could scarcely believe the cowardice and cruelty it took for her husband to send a friend to tell her he wanted a divorce.

“My knees gave way. I felt drained and ill,” she wrote. “All I could think at that moment was how cowardly John was to send his lapdog because he couldn’t face me. Far more than simply evasive, it was sinister and cruel.”

Cynthia Lennon said John Lennon led her to believe their marriage would survive the affair

Part of the reason Lennon’s message felt so cruel was because he led Cynthia to believe that he wanted the marriage to last. When they finally discussed his affair with Ono, Lennon told her he would rather have his marriage. 

“Eventually we did talk, perhaps more honestly and in more depth than we had since our student days,” she wrote. “We talked of our failings and faults, our love for each other, our hopes and dreams. John talked again about his other women, and insisted that Yoko was no more important than they had been. ‘It’s you I love, Cyn,’  he said. ‘I love you now more than I ever have before.”

It didn’t take long for him to start putting distance between them again, though.

She said her primary concern was her son

Though the breakdown of her marriage devastated Cynthia, she was more concerned about Lennon’s promise to take Julian. 

“Of one thing I was certain: no matter what, I would never let John take my beloved child,” she wrote. “I hurried upstairs to where Julian lay asleep and leaned over to kiss his cheek. ‘I’ll never let you go,’ I whispered to him. ‘Never.’”

Cynthia retained custody of Julian after the divorce.