Who Was John Lennon’s First Wife? All About Cynthia Lennon

John Lennon was married to his first wife, Cynthia Lennon, from 1962 to 1968, and she was by his side for much of his success with The Beatles.

The musician, one-fourth of the legendary band, met her at an arts college in Liverpool, U.K., when they were teenagers. They got married after she found out that she was pregnant with their son, Julian, months before The Beatles became one of the biggest acts in the country.

She wrote of the early days of their relationship in her 2005 memoir John, “My feelings for John were very different from those I’d had for any other boy: more powerful, more exciting and totally unshakeable. And I sensed in John the same strong feelings.”

However, by 1968, the two divorced, and Cynthia was granted custody of Julian. She later remarried three times and moved to Majorca, Spain, where she lived until her death at the age of 75 in 2015.

“I didn’t marry a Beatle,” she told The Independent in 1999. “I married a broke student who played the guitar and ponced all my grant money off me.”

So who was John Lennon’s first wife? Here’s everything to know about Cynthia Lennon and her relationship with the singer.

Cynthia was born in Blackpool

Cynthia was born to Charles and Lillian Powell on Sept. 10, 1939, and had two older brothers, Charles and Anthony. The family originally lived in Liverpool, but she was born in Blackpool, about 50 miles away, after Lillian was sent there while pregnant due to the risk of air raids in World War II.

Cynthia grew up in Hoylake, across the river from Liverpool, after her family moved there shortly after her birth.

As a child, she was interested in art and entered a competition in the Liverpool Echo newspaper at the age of 11. “I drew a ballerina, sent it in and won a pound,” she told abcMallorca in 2014.

Cynthia and John met while they were in college

In September 1957, Cynthia enrolled in the Liverpool College of Art and met John when they were in the same lettering class. Upon their first meeting, he tapped her on the back and said, “Hi, I’m John,” and proceeded to borrow pens and pencils from her.

She said of her time at college, via BBC, “I had to learn a Liverpool accent when I was thrown in the deep end at art college, and all the Liverpudlians said I was posh.”

Before John and Cynthia became friends, he would tease her, but that didn’t deter her. One time, she overheard him complimenting a girl who looked like Brigitte Bardot. So the next week, she showed up to class with lighter hair, in the star’s style, to get his attention.

Eventually, John asked her out on a date at a college party. She agreed to go out with him, and a few months later, they were officially together.

Cynthia married John in 1962

In the summer of 1962, Cynthia found out that she was pregnant with John’s child. On Aug. 23, 1962, they got married at a register office in Liverpool, with The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein as best man and John’s bandmates Paul McCartney and George Harrison present.

Several weeks later, they traveled to Paris for a belated honeymoon, with Epstein joining them.

Epstein had the couple keep their wedding private to avoid upsetting fans of The Beatles, and when news of the wedding did leak, the band had to deny it.

Cynthia and John had one child together

Cynthia gave birth to their son, John Charles Julian Lennon, on April 8, 1963, in Liverpool. John was on tour at the time and didn’t see them for another three days.

As an adult in 2011, Julian, who later officially changed his name to Julian Charles John, told The Times that he had a closer relationship with his mom, and was more like her as an adult.

“Mum was more about love than Dad,” he said. “He sang about it, he spoke about, but he never really gave it, at least not to me as his son.”

Still, though Julian was estranged from his father for some time, he has commemorated him at various events alongside his mother.

Cynthia also met John’s second son, Sean, whom he shared with his second wife, Yoko Ono. In 2010, when Julian opened his exhibition of photographs in New York City, Cynthia, Ono, Sean and May Pang, one of John’s ex-girlfriends, were all there, marking the first time all five had been in the same room together.

Cynthia and John divorced in 1968

In 1968, during a flight from India back to the U.K., John told Cynthia that he’d been unfaithful during their marriage. Later, during a trip to Italy, she was told that he wanted to sue for divorce on grounds of adultery and seek sole custody of Julian.

When she found out that Ono was pregnant with John’s child, though Ono later miscarried, she began her own divorce proceedings against him, and they finalized their divorce in November 1968.

She was an artist and author

Cynthia had a passion for art from an early age, pursuing it in college before she met John.

“I’ve never ever had a goal in life, apart from wanting to do art and get my qualifications,” she told abcMallorca in 2014. “I thought I’d take a teacher’s diploma and teach.”

After leaving art college, Cynthia’s career was overshadowed by John’s, and she spent more of her time caring for their son. Per Hunter Davies’ official Beatles biography in 1968, Cynthia said that she felt “frustrated” with her lack of work.

“I do a bit of painting and dressmaking, but I often think I’d like a job,” she said.

A decade after her divorce, in 1978, she wrote the book A Twist of Lennon, which contained her own illustrations and poetry. In 1999, she shared a collection of ink sketches she drew for A Twist of Lennon, and they were put on display at The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool.

In 2005, she published another biography, John. Julian wrote in the foreword, “If there is to be a balanced picture of Dad’s life, then Mum’s side of the story is long overdue.”

“I have done a lot of Beatles conventions that a lot of people never knew about,” Cynthia told the BBC in 2009. “I didn’t have any money, so I used to go off and do these conventions and support the Beatles. I would get a pittance of payment … I’ve dipped in and out of the limelight, but mainly to earn a living.”

Cynthia got married another three times

In 1970, Cynthia married hotelier Roberto Bassanini, whom John had previously accused her of cheating on him with, and they divorced in 1973. In 1976, she married television engineer John Twist, but they separated in 1981 and divorced the following year.

The same year that she separated from Twist, she began dating chauffeur Jim Christie, who later became her business manager.

They broke up in 1998, and she married nightclub owner Noel Charles, with whom she lived until his death in 2013.

Cynthia was friends with the other Beatles and their wives

Cynthia was friends with John’s bandmates and their wives, particularly Pattie Boyd, Harrison’s wife, and Maureen Starkey, Ringo Starr’s wife.

Harrison and Starr didn’t often see Cynthia after she divorced John — though she did pay tribute to the former after his death in 2001 — but she remained friendly with McCartney. He visited her and Julian shortly after her divorce was finalized, and he said years later, per Rolling Stone, “We’d been very good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them suddenly to be personae non gratae and out of my life.”

Cynthia sold letters that John wrote her via auction, and McCartney bought one and returned it to her several years later.

Cynthia died of cancer in 2015

On April 1, 2015, Cynthia died of cancer at 75 years old at her home in Majorca, Spain, with Julian by her side.

Both surviving members of The Beatles, McCartney and Starr, paid tribute, as did Ono and The Beatles’ official biographer Davies.

“The news of Cynthia’s passing is very sad. She was a lovely lady who I’ve known since our early days together in Liverpool,” McCartney said, per the BBC. “She was a good mother to Julian and will be missed by us all, but I will always have great memories of our times together.”