Born Late: Ain't She Sweet?

Cynthia Powell is a designer, author, and artist, but she is known as the first wife of musician John Lennon. I've just read her autobiography, and she seems to be a genuinely nice lady who's been through a lot. She's also got a bit of that style-icon flair: at John's insistence, she tried to emulate the Bardot look and she fit in well with swinging London. Cyn lived a normal middle class childhood and went to art college, where she met and dated Teddy boy John Lennon, who was in the Quarrymen (which later became the Beatles). He once charmed her by whipping out his guitar and playing her a sweet rendition of "Ain't She Sweet?" which the Beatles would also record. She married John when she became pregnant with their son, Julian, in 1962. She was with John throughout the Beatlemania years, after which John grew distant on drugs like LSD. He was also increasingly unfaithful, which he sneakily wrote about in the song "Norwegian Wood." He and Cyn also argued a lot-- after one argument the phrase "words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup" was stuck in his head and "Across the Universe" came from that. They divorced when Cyn walked in he and Yoko one morning in 1968. She never stopped loving him completely, but married 3 more times after and is now married to Noel Charles. In 1980, she was shocked by John's death, as he was finally getting back in good contact with his first family, particularly Julian. During the '80s, Cynthia became a TV personality, had a restaurant, and had her own perfume, Woman. She has written 2 books, the most recent being the most comprehensive, on her life and times with John. A whole lot of it is simply about him, but in the end she maintains that if she had known all the pain that he would cause her back when she met John, she would have just walked away.

I think she might be one of my new favorite Beatle wives. I mean, Pattie will always be my favorite, but Cynthia sure grows on you...

These photos are from when she met John in the late '50s to when she married her second husband in the early '70s.