Yoko Ono ‘Saved’ John Lennon’s Life by Cutting Some of His Friends Off

When Yoko Ono and John Lennon began a relationship, many of the people in his life grew to resent her. They blamed her for breaking up The Beatles and for pulling him away from his friends. John Dunbar, who saw much less of Lennon after he married Ono, didn’t think this was a bad thing, though. He believed Ono’s presence saved Lennon’s life.

John Lennon’s friend believed Yoko Ono saved his life

For years, the people close to Lennon have wondered why he fell for Ono. Some accused her of being a “hustler.” Dunbar, who helped introduce the couple, said she had a lot to offer him.

“She was a woman, and she could share his life,” Dunbar said in the book All You Need Is Love: The Beatles In Their Own Words by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines. “She was the first intelligent woman truly on his own level that he’d ever met. So if you think about it in that sort of light, it’s not surprising, really. It’s not that she didn’t have anything to offer. She was one of the few hustlers that hustled what she had to offer, which was herself. And it was a big package.”

Though Ono and Lennon began using heroin together early in their relationship, Dunbar said she began to keep him from using drugs. He believed this saved his life, even if it damaged some of his friendships, including the one with Dunbar.

“She saved his life,” Dunbar said. “I think that’s why I wasn’t allowed to see him. She thought that I might sort of encourage him to take drugs or something.”

John Lennon needed Yoko Ono more than she needed him, said John Dunbar

As Dunbar noted, he believed that Ono had a great deal to offer Lennon. He thought that Lennon needed her much more than she needed him.

“He needed her more than she needed him,” Dunbar said. “Yoko was a truly powerful chick. I mean, whether she was hustling or whatever she was doing, she’s certainly powerful and magnetic, and she’s very interesting.”

She denied that she pursued him 

Ono was quite familiar with the rumors that she had relentlessly pursued Lennon. She denied that they were true, though. She said she hadn’t sought out to get involved with a married man. In her mind, a platonic, working relationship with Lennon would have been better, at least at first.

“I didn’t want to have any difficulty with a married man,” she said, adding, “I was very much interested in my work. I had my child and my husband.”

She added that it wasn’t in her nature to pursue a man. She said she was old-fashioned in this way. 

“I’m a very shy person — a mixture of being shy and very proud and very old-fashioned maybe — I don’t think a woman should make a move, you know, whatever.”

Still, they became romantically involved while they were both still married.