NEW YORK, NY (Newsweek) - In the current issue of Newsweek, Senior Editor Jeff Giles takes a look at the lives of the family members
John Lennon left behind 25 years ago and the turmoil that has plagued them since his death. "You know, this is like a Shakespearean drama almost," Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, tells Giles. "Each person has something to be totally miserable about because of the way they were put into this play. I have incredible sympathy for each of them, really." She recalls one night when Lennon woke up crying. "So I said, 'Why are you crying, John?' And he said, 'If I die before you, those business bastards are going to get you. You and Sean are going to be out on the street'."
Criticized and regarded by many as being responsible for breaking up the Beatles, Ono has worked relentlessly to keep the memory of John Lennon alive. Giles also examines how Lennon's sons - Julian and Sean - have tried to have music careers of their own, but found it difficult because of their legacy. He recounts how Julian was infuriated by Ono's reluctance to part with keepsakes to remember Lennon by, lacerated her publicly and bought what he could at auction. In 1998, Julian released an album he'd worked on for seven years, only to find that Sean's first album was debuting the same day. He remains convinced, says his mother, Cynthia Lennon, that it was a publicity stunt made to order by Ono - who vigorously denies it. In any case, it undermined both young men's desire to be judged in their own right, Giles reports in the November 28 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, November 21).
Over the years, Ono's most persistent adversary has been Paul McCartney. "My perspective is that it is probably very hard to be Paul McCartney. There's a certain kind of insecurity that famous people have, I suppose. And he has more than other people because he's more famous, probably," says Ono. In 1998, when Linda McCartney died, Paul talked at length about the fact that Ono had not been invited to the memorial service. "I don't think he's competitive with John," says Cynthia, "as much as he is with Yoko." It's as if they've always battled for the preeminent right to grieve, writes Giles.
In over ten years of interviews with Lennon's family, Giles spoke to Sean, who in a rare interview explained he was growing accustomed to his own accidental celebrity. "At this point, I'm just happy if people are nice to me," he said. "If somebody comes up and says, 'Please can I have your autograph?' I'm, like, 'Sure!' At least they're respecting me as a human being. I mean, sometimes people will treat me like I'm not even a person, like I'm a sideshow freak. They assume all these liberties."
For his father's funeral, Julian Lennon, then 17, flew into New York. "If I had had my way, I would have said, 'Please don't go, it's going to be an absolute nightmare'," says his mother, Cynthia. "But those were his wishes because he loved his father and wanted to be as close to him as he could." For herself, she says, "I wasn't allowed to go, let's put it that way. I had my own way of grieving."
