How John Lennon’s First Wife, Cynthia, Found Him at Home With Yoko Ono
John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon got together when they were teenagers, before John blew up from Beatle fame. Though John had been unfaithful throughout their time together, it was when Cynthia walked in on John and Yoko Ono that put a definitive end to their marriage. Here’s what happened that day.
Cynthia found John with Yoko after arriving home from vacation
Cynthia had suspicions about Yoko, but she wasn’t sure about them until she walked into her and John’s kitchen after returning home from a vacation to find her sitting with her husband on the floor amidst piles of dirty dishes. It was May 1968.
Cynthia had been on a two-week vacation in Greece with one of John’s friends nicknamed “Magic Alex” thanks to his electronics wizardry and Jenny Boyd, whose sister Pattie was then married to George Harrison. When the three of them arrived at Cynthia and John’s home at Kenwood, it appeared that no one was home, despite the lights being on and the doors being unlocked. When the three entered, Cynthia didn’t see her and John’s five-year-old son Julian, nor could she find their housekeeper Mrs. Jarlett. She began to search the sprawling home when she heard something like a muffled laugh coming from the kitchen.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono remained calm when discovered by Cynthia
Sure enough, there was John and Yoko intimately sitting in the kitchen in bath robes (Yoko in Cynthia’s). When the Beatles’ first wife walked in the room, John was facing her, Yoko had her back to the door.
“Oh, hi,” said John, according to The Love You Make by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines. He took a calm sip of tea.
According to Brown and Gaines, John appeared to be “very stoned, as if he had been up tripping all night and hadn’t been to bed at all.”
Finally, after a long pause, Yoko turned to face Cynthia. She also greeted her with an “Oh, hi.”
At the time, Yoko was 36, eight years older than John and married to Anthony Cox, a film producer and art producer. She had a six-year-old daughter.
Cynthia Lennon’s response
It was clear that John expected Cynthia to speak on the situation at hand first. The Beatles’ first wife was shocked, but she’d been in many strange and uncomfortable situations prior to this one, being married to one of the world’s biggest stars. So she did what she normally did in times like these — she acted like it wasn’t happening.
“We were all thinking of going out for dinner tonight,” she said, as reported in TLYM. “We had breakfast in Greece and lunch in Rome, and we thought it would be lovely to all have dinner in London. Are you coming?”
She regretted the words as she said them and just hoped John wouldn’t say something devastating to her, as he often did, in front of Yoko. But he only responded: “No thanks.”
Cynthia quickly exited the kitchen and broke into tears. In a hurry, she gathered things to pack. That was the end of their marriage. John and Cynthia divorced later that year. In 1969, he married Yoko.
