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john lennon hugging yoko ono© Getty Images

Inside John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'extremely co-dependent' relationship

The Beatles legend died when his son, Sean Ono Lennon, was five years old

Jenni McKnight
US Lifestyle Editor
April 9, 2025
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John Lennon and Yoko Ono's son, Sean Ono Lennon, has opened up about his parents' 'co-dependent' relationship.

The 49-year-old musician claimed that his parents had "fused into one person" before John was murdered outside his New York apartment in December 1980, when Sean was just five years old.

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Co-dependent relationship

"Anyone who pays attention to John and Yoko in the latter part of the Beatles, and then together through the Seventies, can see that my dad had this feeling that John and Yoko had sort of fused into one person," he told The Telegraph.

"He had all these terms [like] 'JOKO'! He said that they were one, and there should be one word: JohnandYoko."

While Sean admitted that assessment could be a "bit extreme", he explained: "I think a modern psychologist might say that [my dad] was a bit co-dependent. 

"But the reality is, he didn't want to individuate any more. They were the first power couple, like Brangelina or whatever."

Former Beatle John Lennon poses for a photo with his wife Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, New York City, 1977© Getty Images
Sean was five when his dad was murdered

Sean added: "He wanted them to be an institution beyond just marriage and family. He wanted them to be an artistic union, a political union, a romantic union."

Sean, who produced the music and served as an executive producer on the new documentary, One to One: John & Yoko, revealed in December that Yoko "never moved on" after his dad's death.

A week after their marriage, musicians John Lennon and Yoko Ono lay in their bed in the Presidential Suite of the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam, 25th March 1969. The couple are staging a 'bed-in for peace' and intend to stay in bed for seven days 'as a protest against war and violence in the world'.© Getty Images
John was 'co-dependent' with Yoko according to Sean

'Chaotic' childhood

"I grew up with my mom speaking about my dad every day," he said during an appearance on BBC Radio 6 Music.

"She famously cut her hair when my dad died [because] in Japan, you used to cut your hair when your husband dies. So she spoke of him every day and I think she never has moved on from that relationship."

Yoko Ono and her son Sean Lennon pose backstage after the Plastic Ono Band performs onstage during Modern Sky Festival© Getty Images
Sean said Yoko 'never moved on' from John after his death

In March, Sean spoke to Mojo4Music about growing up in a "chaotic" environment, both personal and political, that filled him with "paranoia," spanning from his initial years with his father and the way it continued into life with his single mom.

"My early childhood was very chaotic," he noted. "It was a very strange time. It felt like it was on the heels of this chaos that they had been going through in the early '70s.

"There were characters hanging around and things that happened that were sort of the echoes of that time when they were being harassed and monitored," Sean continued. 

sean lennon as a child with yoko ono© Getty Images
Sean said he had a 'chaotic' childhood

"There was this FBI agent named Doug MacDougall who came to, quote-unquote, 'protect' my mom and me, after dad died.

"Later, we wound up finding out that he had been stealing things from us – my dad's glasses, some guitars, things like that. And it turned out that he was, like, a bad guy. In fact, he had been working for Nixon to deport John and Yoko. It was really creepy."

Yoko Ono speaks onstage at The GRAMMY Museum on October 3, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.© Getty Images
Yoko cut her hair short after John died

Speaking about the documentary, he said he hopes it can shine a light on his parents' political stance, which included their outspoken views against the nation's political decisions, including the Vietnam War.

"To me, ultimately, the message of the film is that they were very brave, John and Yoko, to go from singing songs to hanging out with the Chicago Seven, hanging out with the Black Panthers, and becoming real radical activists," he said.

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