All About Toshi Ichiyanagi, Anthony Cox and John Lennon

Yoko Ono’s most famous marriage was to John Lennon, but it wasn’t the only time the artist has tied the knot.

Ono first married Toshi Ichiyanagi, an acclaimed Japanese avant-garde composer and pianist, in 1956. Together, they collaborated musically and artistically before separating in 1962.

Later that year, Ono wed filmmaker Anthony Cox. Their first marriage was annulled in 1963 since Ono hadn’t yet finalized her divorce from Ichiyanagi; the two married again once they were legally able.

Before divorcing in 1969, Ono and Cox welcomed daughter Kyoko Chan Cox. Kyoko spent much of her early life in Denmark with her father, where he moved after the divorce.

Ono’s final marriage was to Lennon in 1969, and they welcomed their only child, Sean Lennon, in October 1975. Their 13-year romance went on to become one of the most famous love stories in pop culture history, and is now the subject of the documentary One to One: John & Yoko, which began streaming on HBO Max on Nov. 14.

“When I fell in love with Yoko, I knew, my God, this is different from anything I’ve ever known,” Lennon told Playboy in 1980, via History.com. “This is more than a hit record, more than gold, more than everything.”

Here’s everything to know about Yoko Ono’s husbands.

Toshi Ichiyanagi

Ichiyanagi was Ono’s first husband, whom she married in 1956. The musician — a pianist and one of Japan’s leading avant-garde composers — moved from Japan to the United States in the 1950s to pursue a higher education in music.

He studied at the Juilliard School in New York, where he met Ono, who was also interested in experimental music. They were similar in age, born almost two weeks apart.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the couple eloped in 1956 because Ichiyanagi “was not acceptable to Ono’s family.”

According to The New York Times, Ichiyanagi and Ono “immersed themselves in the experimental art and music scenes of the era, including the radical Fluxus movement.” Ichiyanagi continued his studies at the New School, where he took a course taught by the composer John Cage and Ono sat in on the classes.

Ichiyanagi and Cage took their music on the road together, sometimes including Ono. The former couple also hosted music sessions at their Tribeca loft, featuring performances highlighting music, poetry and dance.

Ichiyanagi and Ono ended their marriage in 1962. Ichiyanagi died at age 89 in Tokyo on Oct. 7, 2022.

Anthony Cox

Ono married for a second time in November 1962. She wed Cox, a fellow artist — however, the couple’s marriage was annulled in March 1963 because Ono hadn’t yet finalized her divorce from Ichiyanagi.

Once she did so, Ono married Cox again in June 1963. Two months later, the pair welcomed their first child, daughter Kyoko Chan Cox, in August 1963.

The pair was very career-focused. While Ono pursued art full-time, Cox was a jazz musician, artist and filmmaker.

“I grew up with the whole scene — I was a beat, then I was a beatnik, then I was a hippie,” he told PEOPLE in February 1986. Ultimately, the couple divorced in February 1969.

Ono’s divorce from Cox and subsequent marriage to Lennon — whom she wed later that year — instigated a custody battle over Kyoko, which at times grew contentious. Cox relocated to Denmark and took their daughter with him.

Over New Years’ in 1970, Ono and Lennon visited Denmark in an apparent attempt to mend fences, and for a brief time it was successful; the famous couple stayed at the farmhouse Cox shared with Kyoko and Cox’s new wife.

But relations soon deteriorated. By 1971, Cox had full custody and had ultimately disappeared with Kyoko. She would not contact her mother until 1994, after deciding to have children of her own.

“When Kyoko appeared finally, I was totally in shock,” Ono later told PEOPLE. “It felt like the part of me that was missing came back.”

Ono wouldn’t see her daughter again until 1998. “Losing my daughter was a very serious pain,” she said. “There was always some empty space in my heart.”

John Lennon

Ono’s last marriage was to Lennon, whom she wed in 1969. Their relationship became into one of the most well known love stories in pop culture history.

The pair first met in London in 1966, when Lennon stopped by Ono’s solo exhibit at the Indica Gallery after hearing about “this Japanese avant-garde artist coming from America,” he later recalled to Playboy.

Soon after, they began an affair, which prompted Lennon to leave his first wife, Cynthia Lennon, and their son, Julian. While their divorce is often attributed to Lennon’s affair with Ono, the songwriter later insisted in an open letter to Cynthia that things between them were over before the affair.

Lennon and Ono recorded their first-ever musical collaboration, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, over the course of one weekend in spring 1968 at Lennon’s home in Kenwood, England — the same weekend Cynthia came home to discover Lennon’s affair, per The Guardian.

The following year, they flew to Gibraltar, where they secretly married. “It was very romantic. It’s all in the song, ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko,’ if you want to know how it happened, it’s in there,” Lennon told author Jann Werner for Lennon Remembers, per Rolling Stone.

Throughout the 13 years they were together, their relationship was filled with music, art and activism which ranged from peaceful protests to experimental albums — and some strife between friends and Beatles bandmates. In October 1975, the pair welcomed their first and only child together, Sean Taro.

Five years later, Lennon was shot and killed while walking into their New York City apartment. In the decades since, Ono has continued to uphold his legacy, accepting awards on his behalf at the Grammys and at his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.