John Lennon’s Ex-Wife Noted an Eerie Coincidence When She Heard He Died

In 1980, Ringo Starr called Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s ex-wife, to break the news that the musician had died. She said that in the grief, chaos, and confusion that followed, she had two clear thoughts. One was of a warning Lennon received from a psychic, and the other was of a number that had a bizarre importance in his life. She shared all the ways that it had cropped up in both his life and death.

The former Beatle died in 1980

In 1980, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon outside his New York City apartment building. Cynthia was in England, staying with Maureen Starkey, Starr’s ex-wife. That night, she was awoken by Starkey’s screaming. 

“I was asleep in the spare room when screams woke me,” she wrote in her book John. “It took me a few seconds to realize that they were Mo’s. At that moment, she burst into my room. ‘Cyn, John’s been shot. Ringo’s on the phone — he wants to talk to you.'”

Starr broke the news to Cynthia that Lennon was dead. In that moment, she thought only of their son, Julian.

“In my stunned state, I only had one clear thought,” she wrote. “My son — our son — was at home in bed: I had to get back so that I could tell him about his father’s death. He was seventeen and history was repeating itself in a hideous way; both John and I had lost a parent at that age.”

John Lennon’s ex-wife revealed what she thought of when she heard he died

As she rushed home, Cynthia began to think of the number nine, which had cropped up in Lennon’s life multiple times over the years.

“John had been shot in New York at 10:50 p.m. on 8 December,” she wrote. “The time difference meant it was 3:50 a.m. on 9 December in Britain … In the jumble of thoughts whirring round my mind two kept recurring. The first was that nine had always been a significant number for John.” 

She shared that the number had held significance for Lennon since he was born.

“He was born on 9 October and so was his second son, Sean,” she wrote. “His mother had lived at number nine; when we met, my house number had been eighteen (which adds up to nine) and the hospital address Julian was born in was 126 (nine). Brian Epstein had first heard The Beatles play on the ninth of the month, they had gotten their first record contract on the ninth, and John had met Yoko on the ninth.” 

Cynthia noted that Lennon had also written several songs about the number.

“The number had cropped up in John’s life in numerous other ways, so much so that he wrote three songs around it — ‘One After 909,’ ‘Revolution 9,’ and ‘#9 Dream,'” she wrote. “Now he had died on the ninth — an astonishing coincidence by any reckoning.”

John Lennon’s ex-wife said he received a warning about his death from a psychic

Cynthia also recalled an eerily accurate prediction about Lennon’s death from a psychic. In 1966, he received a letter warning him that he would be shot in America. Both Lennon and Cynthia assumed this was about the tour The Beatles were about to take in the United States.

“When he got home in one piece, we were both relieved,” Cynthia wrote. “But the psychic’s warning remained in his mind and from then on it seemed that he was looking over his shoulder, waiting for the gunman to appear. He often used to say, ‘I’ll be shot one day.’ Now, unbelievably, tragically, he had been.”