John Lennon Had ‘No Shame’ When It Came to Cheating on His Wife
John Lennon proposed to his first wife, Cynthia Lennon, when he learned she was pregnant. They’d been together for years, but he hadn’t wanted to commit in that way, finding it embarrassing to have a wife and child. Even after they tied the knot, though, Lennon didn’t fully commit to her. He cheated multiple times throughout their relationship. According to those close to him, he barely even tried to hide it. His school friend said Lennon had no shame about his infidelity.
John Lennon frequently cheated on his first wife
Lennon and Cynthia married in 1962. Per the book The Love You Make by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, when their marriage ended in 1966, he admitted to her that he had cheated multiple times.
“John had confessed to dozens of infidelities committed during the eight years of their marriage, none of which she had suspected. He claimed in his list of conquests the American folk singer Joan Baez, the English actress Eleanor Bron, the Evening Standard journalist Maureen Cleave, and American pop singer Jackie De Shannon, along with what he estimated at three hundred other girls in towns and cities around the world.”
According to Lennon’s friend Bill Harry, he hardly tried to hide it, both before and after their wedding.
“He had no shame,” he said, per the book The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz. “He acted as if he were still a bachelor — even after the baby came.”
John Lennon said he was very jealous of his wife
Lennon was unfaithful, but he demanded absolute devotion from Cynthia. He grew jealous any time she so much as talked to other men.
“I was hysterical. That was the trouble,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “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 out all my frustrations on her. She did leave me once. That was terrible. I couldn’t stand being without her.”
He said that he was jealous in every relationship he had, and it drove him to anger.
“I was in a blind rage for two years,” he said. “I was either drunk or fighting. It had been the same with other girlfriends I’d had. There was something the matter with me.”
Their marriage ended when Cynthia found him in their home with Yoko Ono
The final straw in Lennon and Cynthia’s relationship came when she came home from vacation to find Yoko Ono in their home. Ono and Lennon sat in the kitchen, wearing bathrobes. Stunned, Cynthia said the first thing that popped into her head.
“We were all looking forward to dinner in London after lunch in Rome and breakfast in Greece,” she asked her husband. “Would you like to come?”
Lennon responded with an indifferent, “No thanks.”
Cynthia packed a bag and left the house. The couple finalized their divorce in 1968, and in 1969, Lennon and Ono married.
