John Lennon and Yoko Ono met in London in 1966 when The Beatles were at the height of their fame. She was having an exhibition of her work at a gallery when he came for a private viewing the day before it opened. The pair hit it off emotionally and intellectually, with the musician leaving fascinated by the avant-garde artist.
Lennon and Ono soon began corresponding and subsequently embarked on a romance.
Their relationship was the final straw for his first wife Cynthia Lennon and their marriage ended in 1968.
A year later, he tied the knot with Ono in Gibraltar.
It was shortly after he married Ono, however, that Lennon told his fellow Beatles he was leaving the band, leading to the group splitting for good.
READ MORE: JOHN LENNON’S EX’S HEART-WRENCHING MOMENT AFTER HIS DEATH
Ono has long borne the brunt of Beatles fans’ anger regarding their break-up, although Paul McCartney has since emphasised the fact Lennon’s decision to go wasn’t down to her.
In a newly unearthed interview with Barbara Walters, his former bandmate Ringo Starr shared an sweet insight into the relationship Lennon and Ono had.
Speaking the year after Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980, Starr said: “I saw him on the 15th November. I was staying at The Plaza
“We went over to New York for a while and I hadn’t seen him for a while because, you know, we see each other wherever we are.
Speaking to Howard Stern in 2018, McCartney recalled how Ono had been in the early days of the romance.
“John had met up with Yoko,” he said. “We thought, oh god — a bit intrusive…
“She used to sit in on the recording sessions and we’d never had anything like that,” he continued.
“But looking back on it you think, the guy was totally in love with her and you’ve just got to respect that. And we did, and I do,” he added.
In a 2012 interview with Aljazeera, McCartney confirmed it wasn’t Ono’s fault Lennon left The Beatles.
“I think it was time for John certainly to leave,” he said.
“It was a bit of a shock to all of us. He just announced, ‘Oh, I am leaving the group.’
“We all said, ‘Are you sure about this?’ We tried to keep it together but he was definitely going to leave, so that was basically it,” he continued.
McCartney went on to add: “[Ono] certainly didn’t break the group up.
“The group was breaking up and I think she attracted John so much to another way of life that he then went on to, very successfully, add a sort of second part to his career, writing things like Imagine and Give Peace a Chance.
“I don’t think he would have done that without Yoko.”
