Inside The Tragic Lives Of John Lennon's Kids, Julian And Sean

Julian Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon: prestige is inherent in their shared family name, as is tragedy. Sons of John Lennon — from his first wife Cynthia Lennon and second wife Yoko Ono, respectively — Julian and Sean's lives have been far from regular. Even what is considered celebrity regular. They each lived through unusual childhoods, caught between the complications of their parents' affairs that shaped not just them as people, but as Lennon scions. 

With the celebrated Beatle's death in 1980, things only became thornier between the surviving members of the Lennon clan in the immediate aftermath. While relations between the half-brothers were no cause for concern — "We've never had a fight in our life," Julian once stated to Esquire – an array of other tragedies ranging from financial turmoil to emotional confusion unsettled them both to varying degrees. It took years for the brothers to each find their peace, which, given their inescapable pasts, might never truly be absolute. Here's a look at the tragic lives of John Lennon's kids, Julian and Sean. 

Julian Lennon was just 5 when John Lennon left his family for Yoko Ono. To many in the Beatles fandom, this was the moment that allegedly changed the course of the legendary rock band, supposedly wedging tensions between its members that eventually led to its breakup. But to little Julian, the saga was primarily about his father abandoning him and his mother, Cynthia Lennon. It was something he failed to make sense of, even in his later years. "I know bringing up a kid is tough, but I cannot understand how anyone — not just dad — can walk away from that," he told The Telegraph in 1998.  

Life was tough for Julian even outside his broken home. The fact that he was the son of one of the world's biggest music icons — and the perception of wealth that came with it — lent him a predetermined reputation in school and made him an easy target for local goons who often jumped him. "They thought we had millions in the bank, but we never had any money when I was a kid," he said, dispelling the myth that he grew up as a spoiled celebrity child. In actuality, Cynthia and her son barely scraped by, with Cynthia even having to sell off her mother's memorabilia to give her son basic essentials like schooling. Unsurprisingly, she emerged as the hero figure in Julian's life. She died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 75.

Julian Lennon hasn't ever minced his words about the fraught relationship he shared with his father John Lennon. It's not difficult to discern the source of this distress, which crept in after John left his first family. "How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces — no communication, adultery, divorce?" Julian told The Telegraph, calling his rockstar father a "hypocrite" with easy candor. 

For all the tender moments John shared with his second son Sean Ono Lennon — even taking on the role of a house-husband to be more domestically present — he hardly ever took time out to meet his firstborn. A particularly upsetting quote widely attributed to John alleges he told Julian that he was "the product of a whiskey bottle," as opposed to Sean being born out of love. Notwithstanding the truth of the lore, the difference in John's treatment of his sons was evident. 

After John and Cynthia Lennon split, the "Imagine" hitmaker's meetings with Julian were few and far between. Cynthia raised their son on her limited income — with the odd spare change from John every now and then. These infrequent encounters between John and Julian did little to strengthen the father-son relationship; Julian recalled an "uneasy tension" that hung overhead whenever they met up until John's death in 1980. 

Sean Ono Lennon got to spend just about five years with his father John Lennon. The Beatles legend was shot dead on December 8, 1980, outside the New York apartment he shared with his wife Yoko Ono and their son. The news sent immediate shockwaves across the world but only reached young Sean days later, when his mother broke it to him directly. "I didn't want to admit that it was hard. I ran into my room and started crying hysterically," he recalled for Rolling Stone. While John's murder left Sean grappling with nightmares and heightened security, it also prompted him to hold on tighter to the memories he had with his father.

"Saying 'good night' to me was an intimate moment. It was just me and him," Sean said. There was also everlasting proof of John's love for Sean in musical dedications like "Beautiful Boy" and the knowledge that he retired from his celebrity life to raise him. In considering his childhood and the tragedy it was struck by, the "Into the Sun" singer has been careful not to mythologize John, and admitted to getting a taste of his "macho pig" father's temper, too. It hardly diminished the fact that he missed him, in all his imperfect entirety. "I don't miss John Lennon the persona. I miss my dad."

The tragedy of John Lennon's death brought on a whole new set of complications for Julian Lennon, who was 17 at the time and shockingly excluded from his father's will. The successful Beatle's net worth stood at a reported $200 million at the time, all of which was consigned to Yoko Ono's authority. Beyond his inheritance of a $65,000 trust fund that would be released to him when he turned 25, Julian had little claim to the massive Lennon estate. 

So he sued, and in 1996, came away with a settlement that was not particularly satisfactory. "The last thing I wanted was a court battle because there's much more money on the estate side than my side," he told The Telegraph, asserting that though the deal was unfair, he was happy it was over. While details of the case have been hushed up, the Daily Mail suggested that they settled to the tune of $25 million — a number Julian has reportedly denied. 

Even more painful was the fact that Julian had to use the money he received to retrieve memories of his father — including the postcards exchanged between them — after Yoko auctioned off John's personal belongings following his death. "I'm buying his stuff back with his money, which is absolutely insane," he said in an interview with Dini Petty. "I've been dealt a very interesting hand." 

John Lennon died long before his son Sean Ono Lennon could exchange notes with him about music — at least physically. So when he unsurprisingly took the career path he was all but destined to take and released his debut album "Into the Sun" in 1998, the tragedy of losing his father took on a newer significance. 

"I'm sure he would have had a million ideas about my music," Sean told Rolling Stone. "I can imagine him saying, 'Why are you doing this fake jazz s**t on your record? What is this crap?'" Citing Paul Simon's son, Sean made the heartbreaking observation that Harper Simon was lucky to have his dad around, imparting his musical knowledge to him. 

As years passed, Sean's own musical footprint inevitably converged with his famous father's in many ways. In 2024, he revived John's 1973 album "Mind Games" for a modern-day audience, putting his own spin on the tracks to create mixes that both mirrored and departed from his father's sound. The same year, Sean also forged a new chapter in Beatles history by taking the legendary John Lennon and Paul McCartney partnership forward with "Primrose Hill," a song he co-wrote with Paul's son James McCartney. 

As the son of one of the most influential pop culture icons of the 20th century, it has been reasonably difficult for Sean Ono Lennon to evade comparisons to his father John Lennon. This juxtaposition has followed him persistently throughout his music-making career — and, unlike his older brother Julian Lennon, Sean has been willing to see it as an advantage worth embracing. "I have all this attention. And instead of complaining about it, I want to use the situation for a positive goal," he told Rolling Stone. 

Notwithstanding his intentions, music fanatics — especially John Lennon loyalists — haven't always been kind to his tributes to his father. When in 2009, he recreated his parents' iconic nude photoshoot by Annie Leibovitz with his longtime girlfriend Kemp Muhl, the pushback was intense. Though Sean brushed it off as a playful project, people didn't regard it as such and bombarded him with criticism. "It really hurt my feelings," he told Intelligencer. "It was just a snapshot and I really didn't think anyone would care." 

His remix work on John's catalog has also drawn flak from fans who have varying opinions on how the legendary Beatle's music should be handled. Talking to Variety, Sean explained that his remixing decisions came from his own music ability, not a bid to replicate the past. "I definitely only make choices that feel right to me," he asserted, like a true Lennon. 

One would think that Julian Lennon's distinction as a musical artist was an inherited guarantee. But being John Lennon's son proved to be far from a smooth-sailing journey for him, even professionally. There was always the ever-present issue of trying to forge a path away from his father's colossal shadow. "To me, it was about the songwriting, the songs," he told The Telegraph, following the release of his Grammy-nominated debut album "Valotte." But the public had other ideas. "They just wanted to see me and touch me and play with me and ask me questions about Dad." Years passed before things settled and Julian could take pride in the musical legacy bequeathed to him. 

That advantage, however, didn't take him too far and Julian failed to command the same reverence as his father in the music world. He turned his attention to other pursuits like photography, and any subsequent albums he put out after "Valotte" failed to make a significant impact. "Jude," for instance, was dismissed for its "overbearing, leaden, soft-rock production" by The Guardian. The measurement of his success aside, Julian has had other grouses with the music industry as well. "The abuse is unbelievable," he told People, in reference to the treatment of artists. "I felt I'd been screwed over by labels and managers way, way too much in my life already, more than my fair share, more than my quota." 

Julian Lennon has so far avoided having children — a consequential decision that is rooted in his own tumultuous childhood and touched, like so many other aspects of his existence, by his father, John Lennon. Julian's choppy relationship with the music legend seemingly set the groundwork for him to remain childless for the major part of his adult life, long before he could have even fully comprehended the idea of fatherhood. 

In Record Collector magazine, he reflected on some photos from the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" era that offered a glimpse into the father-son duo's dynamic, even as Julian was just 4. "He was young and didn't know what the hell he was doing," he said of John. "And that's the reason I haven't had children yet. I didn't want to do the same thing." The "Valotte" singer has been unreserved in his criticism for John abandoning him on any pretext, balking at the idea of a father deserting a child.

Having an absentee father might have weaned Julian off the idea of having children, but he was lucky enough to have found a father figure in Paul McCartney — or Uncle Paul, to him. Besides famously penning the all-time Beatles hit "Hey Jude" as a comfort song for John's eldest son, McCartney tried to look out for him. "Or keep me amused anyway," Julian said. 

Thanks to their complex family history, brothers Julian Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon have long been hounded by the misconception that they are at odds with each other. This couldn't be further from the truth. Notwithstanding the grievances he had against his father, Julian seemingly never withheld his affections for Sean. "I've kept my eye on him since he was a baby," Julian told People. "I always took that mantle of, even when Dad passed away, 'Whatever you need, I'm here. I've got your back.'" That there was friction in his relationship with Yoko Ono was no secret, but Julian was even willing to lay those ghosts to rest for the sake of Sean. 

His support evidently made an impact on Sean, who has described his older brother as his hero and — despite his father's monumental legacy behind him — credited Julian as the inspiring force behind his music career. "Actually he taught me how to play guitar," he gushed at a photography exhibition by Julian (via CBS News). From birthdays to tributes, Julian and Sean have marked some major milestones together, even seeing each other through the premiere of the 2021 Beatles documentary "Get Back." 

Sean Ono Lennon followed in his father's footsteps not just by way of music, but also his ability to rub people off the wrong way. The second child of John Lennon has built somewhat of a reputation — still not as notorious as his father's — for speaking his mind on the internet, where candor can turn into controversy real quick. 

Back in 2021, when X was still called Twitter, Sean shared a verbose thread about political correctness and its inefficacy as a social tool, especially with regard to racism. "We've been trying this kind of morality policing for awhile now & I would posit things are arguably getting worse," he wrote. While his thoughts won support from some social media users, many were quick to call out his supposedly privileged take on the idea of segregation in places like New York.

He ruffled more feathers in 2024 with a concise review of Prince Harry's autobiography "Spare" on X: "Spare Me." A riff on the book's title, it summoned an army of the royal's fans who took Sean to task, with many even making razor-sharp remarks about his own family's messed-up dynamics. These didn't deter Sean from bringing the fabled Lennon wit out in full force to individually respond to his critics; he used some choice words for Harry in several of his retorts that did little to calm the situation down. 

Julian Lennon did not let his father off the hook for years after his death in 1980. The childhood wound of having been abandoned by John Lennon haunted him through much of his adult life, manifesting in more ways than one — either as anguish over John's failure to fulfill his fatherhood duties, or woe over the difficulties his mother Cynthia Lennon had to endure. At some point, however, Julian began making peace with his past. "I realized if I continued to feel that anger and bitterness towards my dad, I would have a constant cloud hanging over my head my whole life," he told CBS News. 

It was apparently after his friend Lucy Vodden — of the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" fame –  died in 2009, that Julian found some kind of resolution and came close to truly forgiving his father. The songwriting ability he inherited helped him wade through his feelings and allowed things, in his own words, to "sort of come full-circle in many respects." Nevertheless, it remained an ongoing process and Julian had to rediscover that peace multiple times throughout his journey. "I haven't carried any negativity with me for a long, long time. But you still have to work through a few knots here and there, just to relax properly," he told People in 2022, following the release of his namesake album "Jude." 

Ever since her association with John Lennon began in 1966, Yoko Ono became a target for many Beatles fans for more reasons than one. This blame game persisted for years even after John's death, before Sean Ono Lennon came of age and began building up walls of defense around his mother.

In 2020, he called into question critical opinions about his parents, especially his mother. "Imagine yelling at Yoko Ono about what John Lennon would like or dislike when you have never met Yoko Ono or John Lennon," he quipped at no one in particular on X. There were other times when Sean was more pointed in his rebuttals, once responding to a post about Yoko's treatment of his half-brother Julian Lennon with a rather bold declaration: "My mother was very generous with him. Ask him."

Speaking of money, Sean wasted no time in setting the record straight after Yoko was called out for allowing footage of John to be used in a Citroen DS3 ad back in 2010. "She did not do it for money," he wrote on X (via NME). "It's just hard to find new ways to keep dad in the new world. Not many things as effective as TV." Needless to say, Sean's always ready to stick up for his mom and his late father's legacy.