Women of The Beatles: Cynthia Lennon

Cynthia Lennon in 1965.

Cynthia was a year older than John when they met at Liverpool Art College in 1958. Their relationship began very stormy with Lennon susceptible to fits of jealousy and violence towards her but she was besotted with John, having sex with him wherever and whenever she could and after a 3 month split caused by a bout of jealous rage, she accepted him back into her life after he apologised profusely for his errors. In 1962 when the Beatles were finally on the right track Cynthia dropped a bombshell on John "I'm pregnant" she said to him when they were alone. This stunned John into silence and one can only imagine the turmoil screaming through his head; would he have to give up the Beatles? his big chance at fame? they were finally onto something now with Brian Epstein as their manager. In those days, having a child and not being married was frowned upon and so on the 23rd of August 1962, Cynthia & John tied the knot at Mount Pleasant Registry office in Liverpool with George Harrison and Paul McCartney in attendance and Brian Epstein as best man. No photographs were taken or parents were in attendance and the ceremony was farcical with a pneumatic drill drowning out everything the registrar said but in the end, Cynthia came out of there as Mrs. Lennon, more or less. Julian was born in April 1963 although John, on tour with the Beatles, wasn't present and didn't see him until 3 days later and it was then he announced he was buggering off on holiday with Brian to Barcelona. Cynthia probably knew even then that it was useless to complain when it came to John Lennon of the Beatles. A year later they were as famous as you could get and Cynthia had the house, the cars and the money to prove it but she also had the rumours of John's infidelity to put up with. In 1967 Cynthia started to notice a small Asian woman following them wherever they went, this woman was always posting cards through the door and ringing. John at first dismissed her calls as "some nutter looking for money for her Avant-Garde bullshit" but the woman was persistent and when Cynthia came back from a holiday to Greece she discovered John and the woman sitting in dressing gowns in the kitchen. With it pretty obvious what had been going on, John later informed her of his intention to be with this woman for the rest of his life. Cynthia married 3 times after John and is currently still married to the third and living on the Island of Majorca in Spain. She has published two memoirs of her life with Lennon; 'A Twist of Lennon' in 1978 and 'John' in 2005.