From their idyllic retreat on a 243-hectare farm in Catskill (Franklin, New York), Yoko Ono reluctantly relives one of the saddest moments of her marriage to John Lennon through the biography of their friend Elliot Mint. In We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me, the author recounts the time when the former Beatle was unfaithful while they were all at a party.
On that day, guests had gathered to watch the results of the 1972 presidential elections between Richard Nixon and George McGovern. With a few drinks in, Lennon started to get upset over the potential victory of Nixon, and he took it out on one of the women at the party. They went to a room adjacent to the living room and made love. The Daily Mail reported on a paragraph from the book where Mint stated that "throughout the event, Yoko sat on the sofa in stunned silence, while other guests began awkwardly leaving until they realized their coats were in the bedroom where John was having sex."
As a consequence of this indiscretion, the singer of Imagine slept on the couch while his wife remained stunned in their spacious bed. Despite being emotionally hurt, Yoko Ono reportedly told Mintz that she could forgive infidelity, but she didn't know if she could "ever forget it". In an interview with People magazine, the author stated that John was putting his wife in the most embarrassing position a woman could be in while frolicking in another room with thin walls where everything could be heard.
This story is just a small anecdote in John Lennon's life as he had been unfaithful on more than one occasion. The most notable case was with May Pang, his personal assistant, with whom he was involved for eighteen months. The beginning of this relationship can be traced back to the moment when Yoko told May to go out with her husband as things were not going well between them. In the early days of 1972, the singer had fallen into depression and was drinking heavily after finding out that both he and his wife were under investigation for deportation due to a previous drug conviction.
Facing this situation, Yoko Ono instructed May Pang to go out with him, but in the sense of "keep an eye on him." One thing led to another, and they ended up in bed together. It all started after the production of the album Mind Games when John was 33 and May was 22. As Yoko was still in London, Lennon and his lover decided to have fun in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Lennon referred to that love affair and those trips as The Lost Weekend.
Upon their return to New York, the couple settled in the Dakota apartment where the singer would later be assassinated. The young couple had a great time as May brought freedom and sweetness to Lennon compared to Yoko's control and manipulation. The story of this lost romance is detailed in the documentary "The Other Love of John Lennon" (Movistar+).
In it, May Pang describes in great detail those eighteen months, along with insights from Paul McCartney, Alice Cooper, and Julian, the eldest son of the former Beatle who got along famously with May Pang.