The Beatles Star John Lennon’s Family Guide: Meet His Two Sons

As a member of the group Paul McCartney later noted, the Beatles That of John Lennon his short life was full of tragedy.

Raised in a turbulent family dynamic after his father Alfred left very young and his mother Julie leaves his sister Marie “Mimi” Smith raising him, John's family life was never easy.

As an adult, John welcomed two sons, Julien Lennon, 61, and Sean Ono Lennon, 49 years old – and was a very different father to each before his untimely death at age 40 in December 1980.

Today, the brothers “face demons together,” according to Julian in an interview with Squire in 2021.

“It's funny because there has always been, especially in the British press, 'Lennon Sons Feuding', this, that. We've never had an argument in our lives. It’s so bull,” he said.

Scroll on to learn about key family members throughout John's life.

Julien Lennon

John's foray into fatherhood got off to a controversial start when he and then girlfriend Cynthia Powell discovered they were expecting a child after failing to use contraception.

When John (then aged 21) discovered that Cynthia (then aged 22) was pregnant, he decided they would get married – and the couple married in 1962. Their son Julian was born in April 1963, but John missed the birth due to his responsibilities with The Beatles.

While John was there during the early years of Julian's life, he eventually left Cynthia for Yoko Ono and had a strained relationship with Julian for much of his life.

Julian later reflected on his awkward relationship with John in an interview with The guardian in 2020.

“Then, all of a sudden, my father literally disappeared from the planet. At least, that's what it seemed to me. He and Yoko Ono were deeply and publicly in love. And I felt like my mother and I had been left out,” he told the outlet. “Maybe 10 years went by where my dad and I barely spoke. I was very angry at the way he left the family. It was thanks to my mother that we started talking again. She was such a gentle soul, never vindictive in any way. She always wanted me to have a relationship with him.

Julian, who is the inspiration behind That of Paul McCartney song “Hey Jude”, written for him after John and Cynthia's divorce, also shared that he finally reconnected with his father before his death.

“I was scared the first time I went to visit him in the United States after my parents divorced. I was becoming more and more aware of the magnitude of this man,” he said. The guardian. “To my great relief, the visit was a success. My father was charming, funny and warm. Since that trip, I remember we got along better.

Sean Ono Lennon

Unlike his parenting style with Julian, John was a more active father the second time around.

John welcomed his youngest son Sean into the world in October 1975 with his second wife Yoko, and took a break from music to become a househusband.

In an interview with Playboy which took place in September 1980 and was released in January 1981, John shared how well he handled the role.

“I was baking bread and taking care of the baby… because bread and babies, as any housewife knows, is a full-time job,” he told the magazine at the time.

Unfortunately, John was fatally shot in December 1980, when Sean was just five years old.

Talk to rolling stone In 2020, Sean reflected on how his father's death affected him and explained that he still had memories of his father when he was alive.

“A lot of people don’t remember when I was five,” he said in the interview. “I never saw a psychologist, but I assumed that because my father's death had been so traumatic for me, a lot of those early memories remained. I have more memories of being five and four than I do of being 16.

Julia and Alfred Lennon

John's parents Julie And Alfred Lennon They first met as teenagers and married in secret a decade later, in 1938. John was born in 1940 but his parents did not raise him – Julia allowed her sister to do it. Marie “Mimi” Smith to raise her son.

Fellow Beatle McCartney spoke about John's difficult upbringing at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

“As a child, it was decided that his mother wasn't good enough to raise him… His father had left home when John was 3. So it's not very wonderful,” McCartney recalls, 82 years old. “It made me understand why he had this vulnerability. I always admired the way he handled it because I'm not sure I would handle the things he went through as well.

Julia was tragically killed after being hit by a car at the age of 44 in 1958. John was just a teenager at the time.

“It was another big trauma for me. I lost it twice. When I was five and moved in with my aunt, and then when she physically died,” he said. Playboy in 1980. “It made me even more bitter; the chip on my shoulder that I had when I was young then got really big. I was just reestablishing the relationship with her and she was killed.

John and Alfred were separated for much of their lives, but reunited at Alfred's deathbed in 1976.

Mimi Smith

John was raised by his aunt, Mimi and her husband George Smith. Mimi and John remained close throughout his life. Following his success in The Beatles, John purchased a property for Mimi in Dorset, UK, where she lived until her death in 1991.