'I suffered with John': four marriages and Yoko Ono's iconic love story
'04.04.2021'
Source: TUT.by
“She is the most famous unknown artist: everyone knows her name, but no one knows what she does,” said her third husband, John Lennon, about Yoko Ono. Indeed, the marriage with the Beatle brought the Japanese avant-garde world fame. But not the one that Ono craved: she was recognized not as an artist, but as the culprit of the Beatles collapse, writes TUT.by.
Before meeting Lennon, the artist’s life was no less intense than with him. By the age of 33, Yoko managed to drop out of college (which angered her father, the influential banker Eisuke Ono), married the young pianist Toshi Itiyanagi (the more she angered her father) and ended up in a psychiatric hospital (of course, she could not do without her father).
There, in the clinic, Ono found Anthony Cox, who became her second husband. The man was a fan of Yoko and specially came from America to Japan to support the artist in a difficult time for her. Well, the operation "Support" was successful for Cox by 5 points: he left Japan with Ono already. And soon he became her producer, husband and father of the child: in 1963, the couple had a daughter, Kyoko.
A few years later, Tony took his wife to England: it seemed to Cox that the locals would like Yoko's work. In the gallery "Indica" was announced the first British exhibition of Japanese women. The legendary Beatle John Lennon came to her.
“I was told that a Japanese avant-garde artist who came from America is arranging a happening (artistic improvisation. - Approx. Ed.), - so Lennon himself recalled their first meeting. - I walked through the exhibition and saw a staircase, climbed it to the ceiling, found a suspended pipe there, looked into it - feeling like an idiot - and read one word: “Yes”. And in those years, the avant-garde was considered when a person smashed a piano or a sculpture, in general, everything was anti-, anti-, anti-. Boring denial. And then I read this "yes" and decided to stay at this exhibition among the nails and apples.
There was one inscription that aroused my curiosity: “Drive a nail.” I asked: “Can I drive a nail in?”. Yoko replied, “No, because the opening is scheduled for tomorrow.” But then the gallery owner came up to her and whispered in her ear: “Let him drive in.” You know, he is a millionaire. Maybe then he will buy this exhibit. " They began to whisper-confer. Finally she says: “Well, you can hammer this nail, but first pay 5 shillings for it.” And here I am, cunningly * opy such, I say: “Good. I will give you an imaginary 5 shillings and I will drive an imaginary nail. " And so our meeting happened, ”the musician shared.
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They say that since then It has repeatedly guarded Lennon right at his house, which greatly embarrassed the wife of John Cynthia. However, the eccentric Japanese woman seemed to Cynthia nothing more than another strange fan of her husband. And when it turned out that Yoko was more than a fan, Mrs. Lennon was quite surprised:
“It was like a blow in the stomach. I wasn't even angry. I was just dumbfounded ... Therefore, instead of throwing my fists at them and starting to sort things out, I felt that I needed to get out of there immediately, ”Cynthia recalled.
Perhaps Lennon was lucky in this sense: parting with his wife was rather painless for him. But Yoko's departure from his second husband, Anthony, did not go so smoothly. Cox was furious: he did so much for this woman, and she leaves him for a musician with whom she knows nothing! And he took the daughter from Ono.
“He took Kyoko from me, that is, kidnapped. And we (together with John Lennon. - Note Lady) began to strive for him to return it to us, ”the artist said in an interview.
They tried to arrange negotiations (although Anthony himself refused to communicate), went to court (after which Cox completely went on the run). They even hired a private detective! In the end, after dozens of failures, John and Yoko simply stole the girl themselves - and took her to court to resolve the custody issue. But Kyoko was so scared that she did not want to stay with her mother. It lost a daughter for a long 23 years.
The troubles of the avant-garde did not end there. After all, as it turned out, to be the wife of John Lennon is not so simple.
“When John was still a Beatle, things happened: we rented a hotel room, the door was closed, but not locked, and now one of the Beatles assistants suddenly enters without knocking and starts talking to John, as if I were it's not there at all, ”Ono said. - I was stunned by surprise. For them, I did not exist. The people around John saw me as a terrible threat. I even heard that they were going to kill me. Not the Beatles, but people from the environment. "
And when the group fell apart, everyone (including Lennon's former associates, especially Paul McCartney) began to blame Yoko for this.
“With John, I suffered because of the pressure from the audience: after all, for her, I was the culprit behind the collapse of the Beatles and did not allow them to come together again. My creativity also suffered. I wanted to free myself from the need to be Mrs. Lennon, and I decided: let him go to L.A. (Los Angeles. - Note Lady) and leave me alone for a while, ”the artist confessed.
The couple came together again only two years later. Then the couple had a son, Sean Lennon, whose birth John himself considered a miracle.
“Yoko was 43 years old, she had many miscarriages,” Lennon admitted. - In the days of her youth, there were no pills yet, so many abortions were done. In general, no chance. Then we turned to a Chinese man, an acupuncturist from San Francisco. He said: “Your behavior is good. No dope, eat well. After a year and a half, yours to have a child. " We told him: “But the English doctors said ...” He: “Forget what they said. Your have a baby. " And we had Sean born. ”
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After the birth of his son, Lennon ended his musical career and devoted himself completely to the family. Five years later, he still decided to release a new album: Yoko Ono became the co-author of the album.
And a couple of weeks after the release, John Lennon was shot. 5 hours before, she and Yoko had starred with Annie Leibovitz: that cover for Rolling Stone was their last joint photo.
The widow Yoko Ono did not stay long: six months after the funeral, she remarried. The fourth marriage of the artist lasted 20 years and ended in divorce.
In the late 1990s, Yoko finally met and made peace with her daughter Kyoko. Since then they have been in constant contact.
As for art, even in the ninth decade, It continues to create and declare itself. In 2016, for example, she starred for the Pirelli calendar in mini shorts. And last year she organized her own exhibition in Moscow.
By the way, Yoko Ono has a family relationship with Russia: her uncle was married to Russian violinist Anna Bubnova.
The son of Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Sean, followed in his father's footsteps and became a musician.
