Paul McCartney claims Yoko Ono once made an interesting claim about John Lennon’s sexuality.
The former Beatle, who was married to Lennon for more than a decade before his death in 1980, told Vanity Fair in an interview that her husband “might have been gay” in a phone call shortly after Lennon’s murder in 1980.
“Right after John died, (Ono) called me and said, ‘You know, John might have been gay.’
“I said, ‘I’m not sure.’ I said, ‘I don’t think so. Certainly not when I knew him”…because we were in the ’60s. We were with a lot of girls. And I witnessed him…jacking lots of girl action. ”
McCartney, who recently opened up about the Beatles’ history in the new documentary Man on the Run, said: “I slept with John a lot, but nothing happened.”
“There were no gestures, no facial expressions. There was nothing. So there was no reason to believe this at all.”
The VF interview was conducted in 2015, but was republished last month to coincide with the release of the documentary.
McCartney recalled that rumors swirled about John Lennon’s sexuality after he traveled with Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who was gay, in 1963.
“But I saw it as a power play. That was just John,” McCartney said. “Brian asked him out as a gay man, a handsome boy that Brian admired. They went to Spain and had a good time. There was no doubt that John would be interested in it.”
“Personally I didn’t think anything was going on,” he added. “Certainly, I’ve never heard of anything happening. But I looked at it as, ‘You want to do business with the Beatles? I’m the leader.'”
Lennon and Ono’s marriage wasn’t always smooth sailing.
In late 1973 and 1974, Lennon spent “lost weekends” in Los Angeles, separated from his wife. Ono expelled the singer-songwriter from his home after he had “loud, noisy sex” with another woman at a party.
Lennon wanted Ono back, but was wary of him coming back. That’s when she got by with a little help from McCartney.
“There was a time when Sir Paul McCartney asked Yoko to come and talk to John in Los Angeles about their separation,” Elliott Mintz, a friend of the couple, told Fox News Digital in 2024. “She seemed grateful for the invitation.”
The former Los Angeles radio and television announcer, who met the couple in the early 1970s, published a memoir, We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me, in 2024 with the blessing of son Sean Lennon.
In the book, he describes how McCartney gave a broken-hearted Lennon sound advice on how to find love again.
“Paul came out here and had a meeting with John,” Mintz said. “His advice was: ‘You can’t just say you’ve changed. You’ve got to show it. You’ve got to prove it. It’s like going on a date with her again. You’ve got to bring her flowers, you’ve got to take her out to dinner. You’ve got to show her how important she is in your world.’
Mr Mintz said Mr Lennon had “taken to heart” Mr McCartney’s advice. It worked.
“Yoko welcomed him into her home and they resumed their relationship,” Mintz explained. “It wasn’t fun being with John during the lost weekends. Keep in mind that John was never a bachelor. From his Liverpool days he was always married. So this was the period when he sowed his wild oats. While there were problems in his marriage, Yoko sent him out here (Los Angeles) to do some self-discovery.”
“He actually lost himself over the lost weekend and climbed the ladder back into her heart,” Mintz recalled.
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this post.
