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 £75,000, 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 £100,000 plus £2,400 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.
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