<p id=”par-1_55″>In 1971, <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/john-lennon/?swcfpc=1″>John Lennon</a> released “Imagine,” a <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/music/”>song</a> his ex-wife, Cynthia, felt was incongruous with the way he truly lived his life. After Lennon and Cynthia divorced, he married Yoko Ono and began to put his son, Julian, at a distance. Cynthia didn’t think that Lennon actually stood for what he promoted in the song.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-john-lennon-s-ex-wife-felt-he-was-being-hypocritical-when-he-released-imagine”>John Lennon’s ex-wife felt he was being hypocritical when he released ‘Imagine’</h2>
<p id=”par-2_25″>In 1971, Cynthia read in the newspaper that her ex-husband had <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/activist-tried-stop-john-lennon-moving-new-york-city.html/”>moved to New York</a>. He’d left without any warning to her or their son.</p>
<p id=”par-3_65″>“I had no idea whether he planned to see Julian again or how we would make contact,” Cynthia wrote in her book, <em><a href=”https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/john-cynthia-lennon/1103375931″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>John</a></em>. “Until now arrangements had been made through Peter Brown in the office, but when I spoke to him he said he, too, had no idea what was going on. It seemed that John was willing to sacrifice his son to protect Yoko.”</p>
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<p id=”par-4_60″>Weeks later, Ono called Cynthia. She said that she would be the one to discuss Julian with Cynthia, not Lennon. Cynthia told Ono that if Lennon wanted to discuss his son, he should be the one to reach out. She hung up, furious. Her ex-husband spoke and sang publicly about peace and unity, but treated his <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/john-lennons-son-felt-rejected-unimportant-beatles-life.html/”>son with distant coldness</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-5_77″>“I was livid,” she wrote. “John had just released ‘Imagine,’ the song that would become an international anthem for peace, telling the world to ‘live as one,’ yet he couldn’t pick up the phone, make peace with me and arrange to see his own son. Surely, I reasoned, Julian meant more to him than some foolish agreement with Yoko about dealing with each other’s ex-partner. I was wrong. It was three years before John saw Julian again.” </p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-john-lennon-s-ex-wife-recalled-the-way-her-son-felt-abandoned”>John Lennon’s ex-wife recalled the way her son felt abandoned</h2>
<p id=”par-6_14″>For the next several years, Cynthia hoped in vain that Lennon would reach out.</p>
<p id=”par-7_65″>“If John had, at any point, picked up the phone or written to me, asking to see Julian, I would have been delighted,” Cynthia wrote. “In fact, I often prayed that he would. But there was no word from him between 1971 and 1974, apart from birthday and Christmas presents for Julian each year, sent by his London office with no personal note or card.”</p>
<p id=”par-8_11″>Julian began to ask about why he couldn’t see his father.</p>
<p id=”par-9_63″>“I explained to Julian that John couldn’t leave America until he got permission to live there, which didn’t mean much to a small boy,” Cynthia wrote. “‘If Dad can’t come and see me then why can’t I go and see him?’ he asked. What could I say? ‘I think he’s very busy getting settled in America. I’m sure he’ll be in touch soon.’”</p>
<p id=”par-10_6″>Eventually, though, Julian stopped believing her.</p>
<p id=”par-11_35″>“But as time passed with no word, Julian drew his own conclusions,” Cynthia wrote. “‘Dad’s always telling people to love each other,’ he said to me one day, ‘but how come he doesn’t love me.’”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-julian-lennon-admitted-he-has-a-complicated-relationship-with-his-father-s-memory”>Julian Lennon admitted he has a complicated relationship with his father’s memory</h2>
<p id=”par-12_20″>Julian eventually visited his father, but their relationship remained distant. He said he has a complicated <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/john-lennons-son-julian-said-hard-entering-music-industry-lennon-name.html/”>relationship with Lennon’s memory</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-13_43″>“Growing up as John Lennon’s son has been a rocky path,” he wrote in the foreword to <em>John</em>. “All my life I’ve had people coming up to me saying ‘I loved your dad.’ I always have very mixed feelings when I hear this.” </p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-2″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Yoko-Julian-John.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, and John Lennon sitting together.” class=”wp-image-3740222″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, and John Lennon | Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
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<p id=”par-14_22″>While he could see what Lennon meant to people, this didn’t change the fact that Julian felt a constant sense of rejection. </p>
<p id=”par-15_46″>“After the age of five, when my parents separated, I saw him only a handful of times, and when I did he was often remote and intimidating,” Julian wrote. “I grew up longing for more contact with him but felt rejected and unimportant in his life.”</p>