Facing fame in their father’s shadow, Julian Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon have inherited a name that represents some of the most iconic rock musicianship in modern history. But being related to a member of The Beatles hasn’t prevented the half-brothers from facing their own demons, and both siblings have endured hardship in the wake of their father’s death. “I don’t miss John Lennon the persona,” Sean Ono Lennon once told Rolling Stone. “I miss my dad.”
In spite of these troubles, the Lennon brothers have also learned to embrace John’s legacy. Each son has paid tribute to their dad through the medium that represents him best: music. They’ve even been known to come together in more recent years to celebrate not only John, but the legacy of The Beatles overall. “It’s a big old, weird family,” Julian shared with Esquire. “But as they say, families are always a bit screwed up.” From fighting for their own inheritance to dealing with backlash over tributes to their family patriarch, the two have dealt with some trying times.
Julian Lennon felt abandoned by John Lennon
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After John and Cynthia Lennon divorced in 1968, the then-5-year-old son Julian Lennon faced life without his father at a pivotal time in his young life. To make matters worse, the situation around his parents’ divorce (John left Cynthia after having an affair with his eventual wife Yoko Ono) left little Julian with a lot of anger. John devoted most of his focus to his new wife and son, essentially abandoning his first family. “I felt he was a hypocrite,” the musician told The Telegraph in 1998. “Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son.”
Amidst the family’s turmoil, John’s bandmate, Paul McCartney, penned what would become a Beatles classic that was also long rumored and later confirmed to be written for Julian himself. “Hey Jude” was released in 1968, the same year as John and Cynthia’s divorce. From the older Lennon son’s perspective, the song was both a gift and a curse. “It’s a beautiful sentiment, no question about that, and I’m very thankful — but I’ve also been driven up the wall by it,” he revealed to Esquire. “Depending on what side of the bed one woke up on, and where you’re hearing it, it can be a good or a slightly frustrating thing.”
Sean Ono Lennon dealt with his dad’s temper
Sean Ono Lennon also faced the dual nature of his famous father. He detailed one such occasion in which the peace-loving musician berated his then young son in the biography, “John Lennon: The Life” (via HuffPost). John Lennon once screamed so loudly into his son’s ear that Sean was sent to the hospital, and it was only then that the musician’s softer side came out. “I remember when I was lying on the floor and hurting, and him holding me and saying, ‘I’m so sorry,” he recalled. “He did have a temper.”
But not all of his short time with his father was spent in anger. Much of it was spent in solitude with his parents after John had split with The Beatles. While another Beatle wrote a loving song for the eldest Lennon child, the youngest was honored with one written by John himself; the 1980 classic, “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy).” The tune elicited special memories for Sean. “[The end of the song] always reminded me of him putting me to bed,” he shared with AP. “He had a sort of ritual … He would flick the lights sort of in rhythm with his voice, so it felt like his voice was controlling the lights … I have memories, so it was nice.”
The loss of their father impacted them both
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After John Lennon was tragically murdered in December 1980, each of the Lennon sons experienced varying emotions as they grew up without their father. For older son Julian Lennon, he found solace during his parents’ separation by following the example of his mother, Cynthia (who was John Lennon’s first wife). “I think partly the reason why I am the way I am is because there was so much grace and dignity in her,” he told Esquire. “She was without question my beacon, my hero. The only person I really looked up to.”
As for younger son Sean Ono Lennon, whose mother is Yoko Ono, he continued to live life with reminders of his dad to guide him. “He’s alive in his music, in my life,” Sean shared with Rolling Stone. “Sometimes I walk into a store and hear him singing … and I feel like that’s him talking to me.”
Even though they’ve each worked through their grief and respective issues stemming from John’s passing, the brothers have also been able to celebrate their father’s legacy. They reunited in 2021 at a screening of The Beatles’ documentary film “Get Back,” which Julian shared re-shaped his vision of his father after so many years. “The film has made me love my father again, in a way I can’t fully describe,” Julian wrote in an Instagram post alongside his half-brother.
Julian Lennon had to fight for his own inheritance
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Years after his father’s death, Julian Lennon was involved in a lengthy legal battle against his stepmother, Yoko Ono, over his inheritance. While his father previously set up a £100,000 trust fund, Julian was not included in his father’s will. He filed a legal motion against Ono, who was the sole inheritor of John Lennon’s reported £220 million estate. The lawsuit raged on for almost two decades before eventually being settled in 1996, and Julian was reportedly awarded a £20 million sum.
In the years after he won the lawsuit, Julian used some of those funds to buy back some of his father’s personal belongings, including letters that the Beatle once wrote to his child. Ironically, he decided to sell a portion of those items as NFTs in 2022. “I just felt that this was a unique way to continue dad’s legacy and … to give people a little more than they would normally get and hear some stories that they haven’t heard before in a new art form and a different medium,” he told Variety.
Sean Ono Lennon faced backlash over his artistic tribute to his parents
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In 2009, Sean Ono Lennon recreated his parents’ famous NSFW Rolling Stone cover, where John Lennon curls up nude with a clothed Yoko Ono. While the original was taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, Sean’s take was shot by controversial photographer Terry Richardson for Purple Magazine. The photo featured Sean laying clothed on a bed while his then-girlfriend, model Charlotte Kemp Muhl, was nude and draped around him.
Immediate reactions to the photo were not favorable, which did not sit well with Sean. The musician even tried to explain that the shot was completely improvised and wasn’t originally planned. “It was just a snapshot and I really didn’t think anyone would care,” he revealed to New York magazine. “I didn’t even remember it until I started getting this vehement hate mail. But there was at least one fan of the photo: Ono herself! “My mom thought it was cute,” he shared with the outlet. “She liked the picture more than I did.”
Julian Lennon’s view on fatherhood was skewed permanently
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After being abandoned by his father at an impressionable age, Julian Lennon has since expressed that his outlook on being a family man was significantly changed. The artist began seeing things through a different lens as he got older, recognizing different emotions and attitudes that came through family keepsakes like photos. “He was young and didn’t know what the hell he was doing,” he admitted to Record Collector in 2011. “And that’s the reason I haven’t had children yet. I didn’t want to do the same thing.”
While he wasn’t able to alter his view on fatherhood, Julian has been able to find forgiveness for his father through a shared love of music. After writing a song for his late childhood friend, Lucy Vodden, who was the inspiration behind The Beatles’ iconic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” he learned how to embrace both the good and not-so-good sides of his famous dad. “In the past, I had said I had forgiven Dad, but it was only words,” he shared with CBS News. “It wasn’t until the passing of my friend Lucy and the writing of this song that really helped me forgive my father.”
Sean Ono Lennon took control over his father’s legacy after his mother became ill
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In 2020, Sean Ono Lennon took a significant step in stewarding his famous father’s legacy. He was reportedly appointed a director of eight companies that were involved with both The Beatles and Yoko Ono’s artistic efforts, including Apple Corp. He was also named to the board of Lensolo, which is in charge of a portion of John Lennon’s music catalog. All of these assignments were in the stead of Yoko Ono, who had grown more reclusive as she dealt with an undisclosed illness.
Sean had always valued the importance of his father’s mark on the world, through music and other means. Now that he has taken a legal standing in maintaining his father’s legacy, he has vowed to ensure it is available for all to enjoy for years to come. “With the world as it is now, people have forgotten so many things that I never imagined could be forgotten,” he once told The Sunday Times. “I refuse to let that happen to this music — it means too much to me.”
Sean Ono Lennon’s friend died by suicide
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Unfortunately, Sean Ono Lennon’s life has been touched by tragic deaths more than once. After his father, he also lost a friend and fellow musician, Zachary Rosen, to suicide in 2019. Rosen, who performed under the moniker Syzygy, was connected to Ono Lennon through Ono Lennon’s band’s guitar player, Connor Grant.
Following Rosen’s death, Ono Lennon released his friend’s first and final EP, “Circles,” on his label, Chimera Music Label. “When I heard Zack’s songs, I knew immediately I wanted to put them out,” he told Spin. “All I wanted was for people to have a chance to discover what I believe are amazing songs.” But instead of profiting off of his friend’s artistry, Ono Lennon pledged to donate all funds from the record to numerous mental health agencies, which included the National Alliance for Mental Illness and the Treatment Advocacy Center.
“I can tell you from personal experience that life has a way of blending beauty and tragedy together into a kind of pain-love continuum,” Ono Lennon wrote about Rosen’s passing (via Wildfire Music). “I feel lucky to be a part of bringing these songs out into the world.”
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Both brothers have fought rumors about their relationship all of their lives
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Even though the situation surrounding their respective parents was fraught, both Julian and Sean Ono Lennon have shared that they have nothing but love for one another. While the press tried to pit the half-siblings against each other, particularly at the height of Julian’s public outcry for his inheritance, the pair maintains that they have a good relationship.
The two even feed off of each other’s energies while making public appearances in honor of their father, including the premiere of Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary “Get Back.” “Because I love him so much I said, ‘Listen, I’m coming with you,'” Julian shared with Esquire about convincing Sean to attend. “‘We’ll face the demons together.'”
The brothers have even explored working together and bringing their joint Lennon power into shared music projects. “We want to play around with an idea,” Julian told Bill Maher in an episode of the “Club Random” podcast in 2023. “I think it’s a nice idea … but it’ll have its time and place.”
source: https://www.nickiswift.com/1719009/tragic-details-john-lennon-sons-julian-sean/
