John Lennon’s first wife and the mother of Julian Lennon, Cynthia Lennon, died on Wednesday from cancer at her home in Majorca, Spain. Her son Julian was at her side. She was 75.
A statement was posted on Julian’s official site saying:
Cynthia Lennon passed away today at her home in Mallorca, Spain following a short but brave battle with cancer.
Her son Julian Lennon was at her bedside throughout. The family are thankful for your prayers.
Please respect their privacy at this difficult time.
A video was also posted on Julian’s YouTube channel:
Cynthia Powell was born in Blackpool where the family had relocated after their previous city, Liverpool, became the target of German bombing runs. She became interested in art early in life and attended the Liverpool College of Art where she met a young John Lennon.
The pair began dating in the fall of 1958 and kept their relationship together, save for a three month break in the early years, even with Lennon’s frequent long engagements in Hamburg with the Beatles.
Lennon and Powell were married on August 23, 1962 shortly after Powell found out that she was pregnant. Julian was born on April 8, 1963, just as the Beatles were taking off. Manager Brian Epstein insisted that both the marriage and the baby be kept secret as he felt it helped the group’s image with younger girls but the news broke during the band’s first trip to America and, during an Ed Sullivan appearance, a graphic was shown saying “Sorry, girls. He’s married.”
Cynthia was regularly threatened by Beatles fans and didn’t tour with John again although she was frequently seen with him at nightspots and in other press photos. They moved to a mansion in Kenwood in 1964 and regularly traveled with the other Beatles and their business associates.
As Lennon got deeper into drugs and meditation, he became less communicative with everyone his life other than the three Beatles. In early 1968, Cynthia found letters to John from Yoko Ono and, even though he denied any involvement, she later found out that he was sneaking out to receive telegrams from her while they were on a three-month trip to India. Lennon confessed on the way back to England and, soon after, sued for divorce, claiming that Cynthia had been unfaithful to him. Cynthia filed a counterclaim for divorce.
After their divorce, Cynthia married Roberto Bassanini but divorced him three years later. She opened a restaurant in Ruthin, Wales and married once again in 1976 to John Twist. In 1978, she published the book A Twist of Lennon which told her story with and after Lennon and included her own poetry and drawings.
Powell and Twist were divorced in 1983 and she entered a number of businesses with varying success including a perfume, a London restaurant called Lennon’s and a recording career with her first record produced by Paul McCartney.
Cynthia married one last time in 2002 to Noel Charles, who died in 2013. In 2005, she published a second biography, John, an the next year attended the premier of the Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles based show Love in Las Vegas.
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