Where Is Yoko Ono Now? Inside the Artist’s Life Today

Yoko Ono is at the center of the new documentary One to One: John & Yoko.

The film, from Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald, premiered on Nov. 14 on HBO and details a pivotal era of Ono and John Lennon’s lives, exploring the couple’s relationship, music and activism during the ‘70s.

Ono, who many people blame for The Beatles’ breakup, first met Lennon in 1966 at her art exhibit in London. They married in 1969 and moved to New York City in 1971, shortly after The Beatles split. During their time in N.Y.C., the pair welcomed a son named Sean, released multiple albums together and became involved in political activism.

On Dec. 8, 1980, Lennon was shot and killed outside their Upper West Side apartment as Ono stood nearby. She later told PEOPLE, “What I miss most about John is his incredible tenderness and his belief in me … Love can sometimes be hell. You could abuse each other in the name of love. But the thing that worked in our relationship was that we never lost respect for each other and always made sure to express it. We loved each other like there was no tomorrow.”

Ono is now in her 90s and living a quiet life out of the spotlight.

Keep reading to learn more about Yoko Ono’s life after John Lennon’s death, including where she is today.

Who is Yoko Ono?

Ono is a renowned avant-garde artist, musician and activist. She was born on Feb. 18, 1933, in Tokyo to Eisuke Ono and Isoko Yasuda Ono. Both of her parents were “high-minded about art,” as Ono told Humanity Magazine in 2016, and her mother was an accomplished painter.

She was primarily raised in Japan but moved to New York City in the early 1950s with her family. Ono then enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied art and music for a few years before dropping out. She then married Toshi Ichiyanagi, a composer and student at Juilliard, in 1956. The couple continued to live in N.Y.C. together, where they “immersed themselves in the experimental art and music scenes of the era, including the radical Fluxus movement,” according to The New York Times.

They later split in 1962, and Ono moved back to Japan. That same year, she married Anthony Cox, an American jazz musician, artist and filmmaker.

Ono and Cox welcomed a daughter named Kyoko in 1963, but their relationship began to unravel as Ono grew closer to Lennon. By 1969, following the intensification of her affair with the “Imagine” singer, Ono and Cox split.

A bitter custody battle followed, and in 1971, Cox disappeared with Kyoko, prompting Ono to spend decades trying to locate and reunite with her daughter, whom she finally reconnected with in 1994 after Kyoko decided to have children of her own.

What is Yoko Ono most known for?

Ono is best known for her avant-garde art, which, at the time, pushed boundaries and challenged traditional ideas of what art could be. As a major figure in the Fluxus movement of the ‘60s, Ono created pieces like Cut Piece and Grapefruit, which explored themes of vulnerability, peace and audience interaction.

While Ono was already a well-known artist, it was her relationship and creative partnership with Lennon that thrust her into the spotlight. The couple moved to N.Y.C. in the early ‘70s, when they rented a loft in Greenwich Village and welcomed all kinds of artists, musicians and activists into their home.

During this period, Ono and Lennon befriended several political radicals, including Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, and became heavily involved in anti-war and civil rights activism, using their platform to call for political change and the end of the Vietnam War.

Ono also became the public scapegoat for The Beatles’ breakup, despite the band’s members citing a range of personal and creative differences that led to their split. Her presence at The Beatles’ recording sessions and her creative partnership with Lennon made her an easy target for fans looking for someone to blame.

One year after the split, Lennon defended his wife during an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show. “Well if she took them apart, then can we please give her the credit for all the nice music that George [Harrison] made, and Ringo [Starr] made, and Paul [McCartney] made and I’ve made since they broke up,” he quipped, adding: “She didn’t split The Beatles … How could one girl split The Beatles? The Beatles were drifting apart on their own.”

What music did John Lennon and Yoko Ono make together?

During their marriage, Lennon and Ono released several albums together, including Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, Some Time in New York City and Double Fantasy.

They also performed two shows, known as the One to One concerts, at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 30, 1972. The event, which benefitted disabled students at Staten Island’s Willowbrook School, marked the only full-length concerts that Lennon performed after The Beatles’ final show in August 1966.

After Lennon’s death, Double Fantasy won album of the year at the 1982 Grammy Awards. Ono accepted the award with her son, Sean, by her side, telling the audience through tears, “I really don’t know what to say. I think John is with us here today. Thank you very much. Both John and I were always very proud and happy that we were part of the human race who made good music for the Earth and for the universe. Thank you.”

A few years later, Ono released Milk and Honey, the final album she and Lennon had worked on together.

Where is Yoko Ono now?

For more than 40 years, Ono lived in the Dakota building in N.Y.C., in the same apartment she once shared with her late husband. It was outside this building that Lennon was tragically shot and killed in 1980.

During a rare 2015 interview with The Daily Beast, Ono opened up about why she chose to continue living at the Dakota.

“We shared this every day,” she told the outlet of the apartment. “Every day we shared each room The good memory supersedes the bad memory. The bad memory was just one that was terrible. But other than that, I felt we were still together.”

Ono added, “I would feel very strange if I had to leave this apartment. There are so many things that he touched here that he loved. Those things mean a lot.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ono reportedly moved to a 600-acre farm in upstate New York, which she and Lennon had purchased together. Members of her family told author and journalist David Sheff, who penned her 2025 biography, in early 2023 that Ono “is in a happy place” at the farm, per Syracuse.com.

“She believed she could change the world, and she did … now she is able to be quiet — listen to the wind and watch the sky,” Ono’s daughter, Kyoko, told Sheff. “She is very happy … This is well-deserved and genuine peacefulness.”