There are few celebrity couples so bound up with the political upheaval and explosive culture of the 1960s and 1970s as John Lennon and Yoko Ono. But Yoko was working as an artist in her own right long before she met The Beatles frontman and working alongside other artists often means falling in love with them too.
We're looking back at the marriages that came before Yoko Ono's famous marriage to John Lennon that lasted until his death in 1980, the children she shares with two of her partners, including the film producer she married twice.
© Mirrorpix via Getty ImagesYoko Ono met her first husband at The Juilliard School in New York
Toshi Ichiyanagi, 1956-1962
Artist Yoko Ono met the Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi while studying at The Juilliard School in New York. Their shared interest in experimental music brought the two closer together and Toshi went on to become a leading figure in Japanese experimental modern music. The composer studied alongside the likes of John Cage, famous for his 4’ 33” piece which has the orchestra lower their instruments and draws attention to a location’s ambient noise.
Toshi received awards including the Alexander Gretchaninov Prize from Juilliard and L'ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The pair wed in 1956 and remained married for just six years, divorcing in 1962. Toshi passed away in 2022 at the age of 89.
© Getty ImagesYoko Ono's first marriage to Anthony Cox had to be annulled
Anthony Cox, 1962-1963 and 1963-1969
Yoko’s second marriage to Anthony Cox got off to a difficult start. She married the artist and filmmaker in November 1962, but the marriage was annulled in March the next year as her divorce from Toshi hadn’t been finalised. The couple married again in June the same year and had one child together, Kyoko Chan Cox, in August 1963.
The couple divorced in February 1969, the same year she married John. Anthony reportedly went on to marry Melinda Kendall in 1970 - with their marriage lasting seven years, divorcing in 1977.
© Bettmann ArchiveThe Beatles guitarist is certainly Yoko Ono's most well-known spouse
Marriage to John Lennon - 1969-1980
Yoko met The Beatles star John Lennon in 1966 at the artist’s solo exhibition in London. At the time of their first meeting, Lennon was married to his first wife, Cynthia. The pair divorced in 1968, a year before he married Yoko.
The pair were married for 11 years before John Lennon was shot while returning to his apartment in New York in 1980. Yoko has since accepted awards on John’s behalf at the Grammys and represented the artist at his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The couple had one child together, Sean.
© Getty Images,Getty Images for The Recording AcademyYoko Ono has two children from her three marriages
Children
Yoko gave birth to daughter Kyoko during her second marriage in 1963. When Kyoko was eight years old in 1971, her father, Anthony, fled to the United States with her and disappeared, leading to John and Yoko to spend - in today's money - $1.5 million to find her.
Kyoko reached back out to her mother in 1994 after having children of her own. Yoko reflected on losing her daughter to People magazine, saying: “There was always some empty space in my heart.”
The avant-garde artist had a second child with her third husband John Lennon in 1975. Her son Sean Taro shares his famous father’s birthday. Sean has since become a musician and spoke to Rolling Stone in 1998 about growing up as the son of one of history’s most famous musicians: “I never knew that doing interviews and having press was weird. You take it as it comes. You don’t choose your name, you don’t choose your parents. You’re hurled into this earth, and life hits you."
© Getty ImagesTate Modern held a retrospective of her work in 2024
What’s Yoko Ono up to now?
Yoko Ono has opted for a quieter life, moving out of the Dakota building in New York where she lived for five decades. Though she still owns the famous apartment, reports from 2023 state she has moved to upstate Franklin onto the vast 600-acre farm she and John purchased in 1978.
The artist and musician has largely stayed out of the public eye, appearing via video at the Manchester International Festival in July 2019 and at the launch of Come Together NYC by The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus in 2018, alongside Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr.
