John Lennon’s Son Julian Shared One of His Fondest Memories With His Father: ‘It’s Simple Moments’
Before John Lennon‘s murder in 1980, his oldest son, Julian Lennon, didn’t get to make very many memories with him. But he recalled one moment with the former Beatle that still stands out.
How close were John and Julian Lennon? And what “simple moment” did Julian say was one of his fondest with his iconic father?
Julian Lennon’s moments with John Lennon were ‘few and far between’
Julian Lennon was born in 1963 to John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia. That marriage ended, and the rock and roll icon married Yoko Ono. After that, Julian’s time with his father was always short and fleeting.
“[My] relationship with dad was very few [and] far between, really,” he told BBC (as transcribed by Rock and Roll and Garage.) “There are fond flashes of memories.”
There was one recollection, in particular, that stayed with him. He shared. “I just remember sitting on a roof with him before mom and dad separated, looking at the sun going down …”
They made a “balsa wood plane with the rubber band that you … flick around and wind up with your hand,” and they were flying those off the roof. “It’s simple moments like that,” he recalled. “Sadly too few.”
Julian Lennon said it was hard to see Sean Lennon with ‘all the love and toys he could want’
After John and Cynthia Lennon divorced, Julian Lennon didn’t see his father on many occasions. According to his BBC interview, John Lennon disappeared when he was five. “I would say maybe a total of 10 times, I saw him before he was murdered,” he guessed. “I didn’t really know him.”
He added he had a hard time going to visit because his half-brother, Sean Lennon, had the life he wanted as a child. “… I felt hugely upset about the fact that when Sean came along, who I love, I was probably in my early teens going to visit Sean and seeing him with all the love and all the toys he could ever want,” he shared.
Julian confessed he was envious when they were kids. “He was getting all the attention that I felt [John Lennon] never paid to me,” he concluded. “So it was tough.”
Julian Lennon ran to escape fights for being John Lennon’s son
Despite the distance in their relationship, Julian Lennon told BBC that he faced antagonism from peers in school once the other students found out the former Beatle was his father. He said he was once introduced “to [the] whole school as John Lennon’s son.”
“Imagine what I had to deal with [in] that scenario,” he explained. “Everybody felt that I had money in the bank, that we were rich, this that and the other. That was never, ever the case, you know.”
He added, “I became a very fast runner, seriously. I had to run like the wind to escape many, many fights. I was quite a frail young lad, so it was a tough time.”
