Cynthia Powell met a young John Lennon at the Liverpool Art
Institute in lettering class. It was definately not love at first sight
– Cynthia’s first impression of John was a tough teddy-boy, and he
scared her to death. Their first conversation was spent discussing the
fact that they were both near-sighted. Cynthia soon became almost
infatuated with John, much to her own surprise. One evening at a party
at the school John asked her to dance, but she was too embarassed and
refused, saying she was engaged to someone else. John retorted “I
didn’t ask you to marry me!”, thoroughly embarassing Cynthia. After the
party everyone went to the local pub, and the magic began between rough
teddy-boy John and posh-girl Cyn. After this they were hardly ever seen
separated, and spent most of their time together.
It wasn't long before John and the
Beatles got a gig in Hamburg, Germany, which placed a great strain on
John and Cyn's relationship. However, they stuck it out, despite John's
several affairs with other women in Hamburg. She was deeply in love
with John and wanted to get married, something John desparately tried
to avoid. However, when it was discovered that Cynthia was pregnant,
John did the proper thing. Though not as romantic a proposal as she had
hoped for, John told her, "Well I suppose we'd ought to get married,
then." They wed on August 23, 1962, with Brian Epstein as the best man.
On April 8, 1963, after 48 hours of
labor, Cynthia gave birth to John Charles Julian Lennon. John was off
touring with the Beatles at this time and finally got to see his son a
week later. John rarely saw Julian or Cynthia much because of touring
and recording, and Cyn moved in with her mother in Hoylake, very far
from her husband in London.
At Brian Epstein’s insistence,
Cynthia was kept a secret to the press for fear that a married Beatle
would not appeal to fans. However, keeping such a secret was nearly
impossible. Flocks of fans and reporters soon surrounded the the
Powell's home. They managed to snap a picture of Cynthia and Julian in
a grocery store, which made the tabloids. Cynthia was forced to admit
that she was indeed John's wife, but to give John a better image, she
said that they were married 18 months prior to their actual wedding
date so it would appear as though Julian were conceived in wedlock. Her
first public appearance as Mrs. Lennon was with the Beatles on their
first trip to America.
The Lennon's marriage was slowly
deteriorating. John soon became heavily involved with taking LSD,
something Cynthia didn't take kindly to. Their first exposure to the
drug was when George, Pattie, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia were
invited to dinner by George's dentist. He slipped the drug into the 2
couples' tea, and didn't tell the what he had done until after they had
finished. John became paranoid that the dentist was trying to get them
all into some wild orgy or something, and they raced out of the house.
By this time the acid was taking effect, and George could barely drive.
But seeing the dentist following in a cab, they managed to get away,
driving at about 15 m.p.h. The group remembers that Pattie kept
repeating, "Let's get out and smash a window!" They all hated the
experience, especially Cynthia, but John and George would soon
experiment with it again, almost daily.
John met avant-garde artist Yoko
Ono in late 1966. Although Yoko was initially attracted to Paul
McCartney, she soon started moving in on John. She initially wanted his
money to support her career, but soon fell in love with him. She
started sending obscure things to John, such as notes reading “if you
don’t support me I’ll kill myself!”, and he even received a tampon box
which contained a broken teacup painted red. Cynthia was very much
aware of Yoko’s presence in John's life, and even suspected that he was
in love with her, which he always denied.
On August 26, 1967, the Beatles and
their wives all boarded the train heading to the Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi's Rishikesh retreat in India – that is, all but Cynthia, who had
been mistaken by a policeman as a fan and held back. She remembers the
incident well in her novel: "The biggest policeman you have ever seen
pushed me aside, and I shouted desperately for someone to help...I
watched tearfully as the train slowly drew away from the
platform...John realizing that something was missing from his baggage
poked his head out of the window and other heads sprouted their way out
to see what was happening...he just couldn't believe what was
happening: 'Tell him to let you on; tell him you're with us!' His voice
became fainter and his face a disappearing blur as the train rattled
into the distance...I burst into tears...what nobody could possibly
understand was that my tears were not because I had missed the stupid
train but they were expressing my heartfelt saddness. I knew that when
I missed that train it was synonymous with all my premonitions for the
future...the loneliness I felt on that station platform would become a
permanent loneliness before very long, [and] I shivered at the
thought."
Cynthia's premonition of her future
was proven to become reality on the way back to London. During the
flight they finally had a discussion about "seven year itches." John
impatiently replied "Cyn, of course people feel the need to experiment.
Do you know something, Cyn, you are really naive!" This was a complete
shock to Cynthia, who had never even imagined that John could have ever
cheated on her, much less on numerous occassions. She did, however,
remember once incident which caused her to become jealous: at the
costume party for Magical Mystery Tour, George's wife Pattie
was dressed in a skimpy eastern-dancer's outfit, and John hardly was
away from her the entire evening. Cynthia was left watching her husband
hit on one of her best friends whom, although unaware of the fact, he
had secretly had a thing for ever since he met her. Her friends Magic
Alex and Pattie's sister Jenny became worried about Cyn's depression
and took her out of the country for a holiday.
They all returned to the Lennon's
Kenwood home after a nice vacation. The door was unlocked, so Cynthia
called out to John saying she was home. She walked into the sun-room
and was greeted by Yoko Ono adorned in her own bathrobe, sitting next
to John, wearing his bathrobe. Cynthia was utterly shocked and felt she
had to get out of their immediately. She left with Jenny and Magic Alex
to a house in Central London that the couple had shared with some
friends. She ended up talking about the whole ordeal with Alex, and
ended up staying the night there. After consuming an entire bottle of
wine, they ended up sleeping together. She felt disgusted by what had
happened. Three days later she returned home to John. He told her he
couldn't understand why she had left and casually asked her what she
had been up to. Cynthia confronted him about Yoko, to which he denied
anything more than an intellectual relationship. Cyn was not convinced
and had a feeling this was truly the end of their marriage.
She and Julian went on holiday
without John, and he started making public appearances with Yoko. While
in Italy, Cyn met up with Roberto Bassanini, whom she had met
previously. They dined that night, and when they returned to where
Cynthia was staying, Magic Alex was awaiting them. He informed her
calmly that John planned to sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery
with her and Bassanini so he could marry Yoko. This would also mean
that John would have full custody of Julian and Cynthia would be forced
back to her parents in Hoylake. She, her mother and Julian went to
England to sort out the mess. When they arrived, Cyn was immediately
served divorce papers from John. She tried to contact John at Apple to
speak with him, but he refused her call. She then went to their Kenwood
home, where she was greeted by John and Yoko, and immediately began to
cry. She was not about to be called the adultress while it was he who
had been constantly cheating on her all those years. John explained
that he couldn’t hurt his public image and that she had to take the
blame.
Their next meeting was with the
lawyers. They ended up settling on a mere Ј75,000, John claiming that
Cynthia really hadn't done anything for him to deserve anything more.
However, in September, Yoko became pregnant, and Cynthia was able to
sue John on the grounds of proven adultery. She got Ј100,000 plus
Ј2,400 as child support for Julian. The divorce was finalized November
8, 1968.
After the divorce the Beatles and
everyone associated with them completely avoided Cynthia. They feared
that if they showed her any sympathy or spoke out against Yoko, they
would have to suffer the consequences from John. Much to her surprise,
she received a visit from Paul. He handed her a rose and said jokingly,
"Well how about it Cyn? How about you and me get married?" Although she
had never been close to Paul at all, he was the only one showing any
type of compassion for her. He even wrote a song for Julian to comfort
him in this terrible situation, "Hey Jude."
In 1970, Cynthia married Roberto
Bassanini. This marriage only lasted a couple of years. She later met
another future husband, John Twist. However, this did not work out
either. Julian had met a man named Jim Christie, who was teaching him
how to ride motorbikes. He and Cynthia started seeing each other, and
by 1982 they were living together, but never wed. Cynthia has been
living a low-profile lifestyle ever since.