Publicly Peaceful and Privately Violent

A photograph of John Lennon and Cynthia Powell together.

While John Lennon is remembered as a man of peace, such was not the case when his musical career first took off.  At this time, he was dating a classmate by the name of Cynthia Powell, who would later become his first wife.  Her experience of him, however, greatly deviates from the public memory of Lennon, as he was quite violent toward her indeed.

John became interested in Cynthia during the late 1950s.  At the time, she was involved with another man, and when John asked her out for the first time and she turned him down, he responded with, "I didn't fucking ask you to marry me, did I?"  She then went to one of his performances, during which he ignored her the entire time up until the point when she was about to leave.  Only then did he even pay any attention to her.  They soon started dating, and Lennon proved to be quite a jealous boyfriend.  He would often get mad at her, notably hitting her in the face simply for dancing with Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's bandmate, instead of with him.  They experienced an on-again, off-again relationship up until 1962, when Powell discovered she was pregnant.  She informed Lennon of this, and he said, "There's only one thing for it Cyn – we'll have to get married."  They married later that year, and Lennon spent his wedding night with The Beatles instead of with her.  Powell gave birth to their son, Julian, on April 8, 1963.

Lennon and Powell's marriage remained under the radar for quite some time.  The Beatles' career was beginning to take off, and manager Brian Epstein felt their appeal might weaken if Beatlemaniacs knew John was married and had a child.  Appearances were of the utmost importance, and were applied to seemingly mundane aspects of The Beatles' lives.  For instance, Lennon wore glasses but could not wear them onstage because they would take away from the band's appeal.  

While Lennon was on tour, Powell was often left alone.  When they were together later on in The Beatles' career, the couple tried LSD.  While Lennon loved it, Powell hated it, and she described the drug as causing a rift in their relationship.  This was truly the beginning of the end for them.  Lennon soon met Yoko Ono, who would become his second wife.  As expected, Powell did not trust Ono.  Soon after, upon returning from a retreat, Lennon confessed his rampant infidelities to Powell, including the fact that he had been unfaithful since they started dating in college, and estimated that he slept with thousands of other women across the world since then.  Upon returning from a solo vacation in Greece, Powell walked into her home to see Yoko Ono in Powell's bathrobe, drinking tea.  Lennon soon entered the room, and his response to the situation was, "Oh, hi."

According to this account of events from Powell's point of view, the relationship between Lennon and Powell could be construed as abusive in several ways.  Primarily, the incident in which Lennon slapped Powell is physical abuse, and it would be foolish to assume Lennon only ever hit Cynthia once.  Furthermore, the number of instances of physical abuse does not change the fact that it is physical abuse.  Powell also experienced extreme emotional abuse.  Repeated infidelity by a partner can cause irreparable trust issues, and it certainly does not promote a healthy relationship.  Lennon was also neglectful, and though a certain time commitment is essential when becoming world-famous, he took his absence to the extreme.  Finally, in Lennon's relationship with Ono, we can see that Lennon could be a present and loving husband and father ... when he wanted to be, and on his own terms.  Thus, some women, such as Ono, were respected, while women like Powell were simply discarded, and she and her story have been ignored by Lennon's fans since.