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

As a bandmate Paul McCartney He would later state, The Beatles’ John Lennon a short life full of tragedy.

Raised in a troubled family dynamic after his father Alfred he left his mother at a young age Julia leave her sister Mary “Mimi” Smith raised, John’s family life was never smooth sailing.

As an adult John welcomed two sons, Julian Lennon, 61, s Sean Ono Lennon, 49, – and he was a very different father to all before his untimely death aged 40 in December 1980.

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

“It’s funny because there’s always been ‘Lennon Sons Feuding,’ this, that, especially in the UK press. We have never had a fight in our life. He is such a bull,” he said.

Scroll on for more information on key family members throughout John’s life.

Julian Lennon

John’s attempt to be a father got off to a controversial start when he and then-love Cynthia Powell discover they are expecting a child after they have failed to use contraception.

When John (then 21) discovered that Cynthia (then 22) was pregnant, he decided they would get married – and the pair tied the knot 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 around for the first few years of Julian’s life, he eventually leaving Cynthia for Yoko Ono and had a strained relationship with Julian for much of his life.

Julian later reflected on his difficult relationship with John in an interview with him The Guardian in 2020.

“Then, suddenly, my father disappeared off the face of the planet. At least, that’s how it seemed to me. He and Yoko Ono were deeply and publicly in love. And I felt like my mom and I had been put aside,” she told the outlet. “Maybe 10 years have passed when my father and I barely spoke. I was very angry about how the family left. Thanks to my mother we started having conversations again. She was such a gentle soul, never vindictive in any way, shape or form. She always wanted me to have a relationship with him.”

Julian, who is the inspiration behind Paul McCartney’s song “Hey Jude,” written for him after John and Cynthia’s divorce, also shared that he eventually 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’ divorce. I was becoming more aware of the size of this man,” he said The Guardian. “To my great relief, the visit was a success. My father was charming and funny and warm. From that trip on, I remember we got on better.”

Sean Ono Lennon

In stark contrast to his parenting style with Julian, John was a more hands-on 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 house husband.

In an interview with Playboy held in September, 1980, and published in January, 1981, John shared how well he had taken to the role.

“I’ve been baking bread and looking after the baby … because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job,” she told the magazine at the time.

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

Speaking 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 they were five,” he said during the interview. “I’ve never asked a psychologist, but I’ve assumed that because my father’s death was so traumatic for me that many 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 Julia a Alfred Lennon first meeting when they were teenagers and secretly married a decade later in 1938. John was born in 1940 but his parents did not bring him up – his sister Julia allowed Mary “Mimi” Smith to raise her son.

Fellow Beatle McCartney spoke about John’s troubled upbringing at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.

“As a child, his mother was determined that he would not be good enough to raise him… His father had left home when John was 3 years old. So that’s not too great,” McCartney, 82, recalled. “It made me realize why he had that vulnerability. I always admired the way he dealt with it because I’m not sure I would deal with the things he went through that well.”

Julia was tragically killed after being hit by a car aged 44 in 1958. John was only a teenager at the time.

“That was another big trauma for me. I lost it twice. When I was five years old and I moved in with my aunt, and then when she died physically,” he said at sight360 Playboy in 1980. “That made me more bitter; the chip on my shoulder went that I had at a very young age then. I was really reestablishing the relationship with her and she was killed.”

John and Alfred were estranged for much of their lives but reconnected on 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 with The Beatles, John bought Mimi a property in Dorset, UK where she lived until she died in 1991.