9 Days Of Lennon: Day 5 Cynthia Powell

February 9, 1964 The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show (read more here) as Paul sang "Till There Was You" as The Beatles were introduced by captions on the screen. As the camera approached John the caption read "John Lennon-Sorry Girls He's Married".

Cynthia Powell was born on September 10,1939 Blackpool to parents Charles Edwin Powell and Lillian Roby.She was the youngest of three with two older brothers, Anthony and Charles. In 1957 she met John Lennon in Lettering Class and was immediately drawn to him.

"I met Cynthia at art school. She was a right Hoylake runt. Dead snobby. We used to poke fun at her and mock her, me and Geoff Mohammed. 'Quiet Please,' we'd shout, 'No dirty jokes, It's Cynthia.' We had a class dance and I asked her to dance. Geoff had been having me on, saying, 'Cynthia likes you, you know.' As we danced I asked her to come to a party the next day. She said she couldn't. She was engaged." -

The two were totally opposite of each other, he was a teddy boy, loud and tough while she grew up in Hoylake, a well respected middle-class area, and was shy and well mannered. John began taking more notice of Cynthia when she grew her short, brown hair out long and dyed it blonde resembling Bridgette Bardot, who John loved. In the summer of 1958 the two attended a college party where John asked her to dance, he then asked her out where she replied, "I'm awfully sorry. I'm engaged to this fellow in Hoylake." and he responded, "I didn't ask you to marry me, did I?". That night John invited Cynthia and her friend to a pub where he and his friends would be. During the night John turned to Cynthia and told her that his friend, Stu Stutcliffe, had a place they could go. Later that evening John asked as she got on the bus home "What are you doing tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that?" and she shouted back "With You!". John and Cynthia had become almost conjoined at the hip and when they weren't together, like when John was in Hamburg they would send loads of letters to each other and when he came home with the money he had he would buy her clothing, like a leather jacket. The two dated for four years and were wed in 1962  at the Mount Pleasant Registry Office in Liverpool. Brian Epstein was best man and George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Cynthia's half brother and wife attended. John's Aunt Mimi didn't attend because she disproved of it. The two were married soon after the couple found out Cynthia was pregnant. The night of their wedding John preformed with The Beatles at Riverpark Ballroom.

Cynthia was kept hidden from fans during the early Beatles years because Brain feared that if the group might feel alienated with one married. John and Cynthia lived in Brain's flat at 36 Falkner Street for free where they lived with their child Julian who was born on April 8, 1963 and soon after would move in with John's aunt Mimi. Cynthia and Julian were kept out of the spotlight for all of their relationship. The couple later bought an apartment where they lived above Robert Freeman, who photographed The Beatles early album covers. Fans would soon cramp themselves in the apartment halls and place their chewing gum in between the lock of the door trying to catch John so they couple moved again into a huge home near Ringo.

She became close friends with Maureen Starkey, Ringo's wife, and George's wife, Pattie. In 1965 the Lennon's and Harrison's had taken their first LSD trip after their coffee was spiked at a party at their dentist home. John recalled the experience as fascinating, while Cynthia called it 'horrific".

"I lost John to drugs"- Cynthia Lennon

In 1966 and 1967 The Beatles had been introduced to LSD and had became interest in the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi  where she realized he was heading into the future while she stayed in her own. She was against LSD but took it twice more for John trying to save their marriage but realized that it was over. In 1966 John had met Yoko Ono in an Indica art gallery in London. He originally dismissed her as a "crazy artist" but Yoko often called and visited his home to talk to him. He began seeing more of Yoko and in during the White Album sessions he encouraged Cynthia to take a vacation in Greece. When she returned she found John and Yoko drinking tea and Yoko in Cynthia's bathrobe, John's response when seeing her was "oh, hi". Cynthia left the home and went to Pattie Harrison's sister, Jenny Boyd's home where Alexis Mardas, known as Magic Alex to the band was there.  Mardas got Cynthia drunk and tried to sleep with her. Later on Cynthia was taking a vacation with her mother when Alex appeared and told her that John was divorcing her on ground of Adultery.

"The mere fact that Magic Alex arrived in Italy in the middle of the night without any prior knowledge of where I was staying made me extremely suspicious. I was being coerced into making it easy for Lennon and Yoko to accuse me of doing something that would make them not look so bad."- Cynthia Lennon

The divorce of the two were official on November 8, 1968. Early in the year Paul McCartney had went to visit Cynthia and Julian, even though John didn't want him to. It was their he began to write "Hey Jude" a song trying to comfort Julian over this divorce. He appeared at the door with a red rose and jokingly said "How about it Cyn? How about you and me getting married now?".

Yoko wasn't the only one John had had an affair with while seeing Cynthia. Early years in the late 50s and early 60s John had also been seeing Patricia Inder. They met when she was 15 and John was 18 and had grown a friendship with the rest of the band. Patricia originally had a crush on Paul but he had a girl friend, Dot Rhone at the time. In 1960 her and John had finally started seeing each other, while John was still with Cynthia. Inder says that John had proposed to her but she thought he was joking so she didn't take the offer. In 1962 Paul had taken Patricia aside during a trip in Hamburg and told her that John had married Cynthia.

"It was a terrible shock. I was devastated. I bumped into him at the Cavern and he said we could carry on as before, but I didn't want to. I was heartbroken.' "- Patricia Inder

 The spent years apart after John and Cynthia got married and in 1965 ran into each other again.

"My friend and I had to fight our way through the crowd to the dressing room. And there was John. He was combing his hair, but when he saw me he dropped it and said: "It's the love of my life.'" -Patricia Inder

On the night of Lennon's death she recalls having a dream that there was a hole and someone was shouting "Help Me!" but she couldn't see the face of who it was. She later went on to have a son with the lead singer of Motorhead and is now single but still says she believes that the right guy is out there for her. 

"John spoilt it for me. He made me think all men were as romantic, funny and talented as him."- Patricia Inder

"It was said I never loved Cyn. That's far from the truth. We were young, bigheaded, and got into a physical relationship too soon. Perhaps if we took things slow we would have made it. I know we would have made it." - John Lennon 1974

Cynthia  has been remarried three times to Roberto Bassanini, who she divorced; John Twist, divorced; and Noel Charles who died in March 2013. In 1978 she released her autobiography, A Twist Of Lennon. Julian (now 50 years old) is a musician like his father.