Cynthia Lennon

I always wondered what it would be like to be Cynthia and to have millions of American Teenage girls hate you all at once, just because on their Television the words “Sorry Girls He’s Married” appeared as John Lennon’s face was splashed on their screen during the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

What was it like to be married to one of the most popular men in the world, watching him go off to locations all around the world and knowing that girls were literally throwing themselves at your husband's feet?

Cynthia had gotten a taste of that while attending shows at the Cavern and in Europe but by now the Beatles had become international superstars and this war baby from Liverpool was completely overwhelmed.

So, it was no surprise to me that John, this incredibly intelligent artist and poet would leave her and her child Julian for a way-out Japanese artist.

Cynthia suddenly went from being hated by millions of girls to being pitied and loved by the fans who at least thought she was better for John than Yoko.

Cynthia Lennon - In Her Own Words:

Cynthia on the Cavern club and John & Paul:

The Cavern Club had been a traditional jazz venue for some years but now that Jazz was on the wane and Rock and Roll was taking over, the management had decided they’d better move with the times. The Cavern was on Matthew Street. It was a dark, cramped cellar in a basement with poor ventilation and bad acoustics. Condensation dripped down the walls, the stage was tiny, and when it was crowded it was so hot you could hardly breathe the thick air that reeked of sweat and smoke. The Beatles got the job there through a local disc jockey called Bob Wooler, who was in his late twenties and very involved in the local beat scene. He thought the boys were good- he’s got them the Litherland town-hall job and persuaded the Cavern’s owner Ray McFall, to give them a try.

Here's a cartoon drawn by Cynthia Lennon:

Bob first announced the Beatles at the Cavern on March 21, 1961, and before long they were playing there several times a week, at lunchtimes and in the evenings- over the next couple of years they played there 292 times altogether.

John and Paul were always competitive. Although the other band members, and the audience, knew that John was the group’s leader, Paul wanted to be involved in all decisions, whether they were about which venue to play or which songs to use. The two sang alternately on stage and each had his own style. John exuded pent-up energy and sexuality, strutting and pacing the stage with head tilted back, as if he was looking down his nose at the crowd. Most people took this for arrogance, and John had plenty of that, but he actually did it because he was so short-sighted. He did most of the announcements and took the mickey out of people in suits or smart clothes, taunting rockers, students, older people, whoever was there. The more outrageous he was, the more popular the Beatles became.

Paul was energetic on stage, but his style was more seductive than John’s. He wooed the crowd, made friends with them, and the girls loved his big eyes and baby face. He was the most popular with the girls but John did not mind, all of the boys attracted plenty of attention and loved the fans coming to tell them how great they were. John and Paul always had a special link between them, a chemistry that added to the heat; they knew intuitively how to share the stage and the limelight, how to spar with each other and how to play the audience so that the girls went wild. George, who played lead guitar, was quiet and serious. If anyone asked him why, he’d say that he couldn’t afford to make a mistake. Stu and Pete were quiet too, so the way was clear for John and Paul to take center stage.

Cynthia Lennon on John from “A Twist of Lennon”

As far as I can remember Lettering, at Liverpool Art College, took place twice a week and about a dozen of us had opted for it through choice, but there was one amongst us who didn't seem to fit into our neat little band of letterers, his name was John Winston Lennon.

The reason he didn't seem to fit was that he had had no choice to which course he took ...nobody wanted him. John's particular talents hadn't gone unnoticed but they weren't his artistic talents. They were his talents for having fellow students fall about with shocked, uncontrollable laughter at his wicked, disrespectful wit. His ability to disrupt a lecture had to be seen to be believed and John's appearance was even worse than his humor. I think he was the last stronghold of the Teddy Boys -- totally aggressive and anti-establishment. My first impression of John, as he slouched reluctantly into the lettering class for the first time, was one of apprehension. I felt that I had nothing in common with this individual and as far as I was concerned I never would. In fact he frightened me to death. The only thing that John and I had in common was that we were both blind as bats without our glasses...

The John Lennon I had so readily avoided on first meeting was beginning to get under my skin, he was becoming a source of fascination to me. A larger than life character, a rebel. Hilariously funny in a dry, sick way, but totally fascinating. John's drawings and cartoons were repulsively funny. I found myself more and more wanting to find out what made him tick. This of course was all against my better judgement, but I was unable to do anything about it. 

Cynthia Lennon Biography

Cynthia Lennon (née Powell) (born September 10, 1939 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England) was the first wife of musician John Lennon. She grew up in the middle-class section of Hoylake, on the Wirral UK, and gained a place at the Liverpool College of Art.

She met Lennon in a lettering class and started a relationship with him, marrying him in 1962, after the two discovered her pregnancy. They had one son, Julian Lennon, who also became a musician.

Cynthia Lennon divorced John in 1968, after he left her for the Japanese-American artist Yoko Ono. She was married three more times, and now lives in Majorca, Spain.

Lennon and Cynthia were married on August 23, 1962, at the Mount Pleasant Register office in Liverpool, but Lennon's aunt Mimi did not attend. Lennon had wanted his half-sisters, cousins, and aunts to be there, but Mimi made sure that did not happen. Cynthia's brother Tony and his wife did attend, along with George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Brian Epstein (the Beatles' manager) with Epstein serving as Best man. The wedding was a farce (with no photographs or flowers) because as soon as the ceremony began a workman in the backyard of the building opposite started using a pneumatic drill which drowned out anything the registrar, Lennon, or Cynthia said. When the registrar asked for the groom to step forward, Harrison stepped forward instead, which increased the confusion.

They celebrated afterwards (at Epstein's expense) at Reece's restaurant in Clayton Square with a set menu of soup, chicken and trifle, but no alcohol, as Reece's did not have a beverage license. Reece's was the same restaurant where Alf Lennon and Julia Stanley (Lennon's parents) had celebrated their marriage twenty-four years earlier in 1938. The same night Lennon went to play in Chester.

During her pregnancy, Epstein offered the Lennons the use of his flat at 36 Faulkner Street—and later paid for a private hospital room when she was coming to term. After John and Cynthia Lennon had been living at Epstein's flat for a few months (and after hearing about a near-miscarriage) Mimi offered to rent the downstairs rooms of Mendips to them both.

Although pregnant, Cynthia Lennon had to boil hake fish for Mimi's three Siamese cats every day, which made her nauseous. While Lennon was in Hamburg he would often telephone Mendips, but Mimi always got to the phone first and talked to Lennon until shortly before his money ran out—only then handing over the phone to Cynthia.

Beatles Wives and Girlfriends

• Cynthia Lennon
• Maureen Cox
• Pattie Boyd (Harrison Clapton)
• Linda McCartney (Eastman)
• Jane Asher
• Yoko Ono
• May Pang
• Olivia Harrison
• Barbara Bach