When Lennon was performing in Hamburg with the Beatles, Powell rented his bedroom at 251 Menlove Avenue in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton from his aunt and legal guardian, Mimi Smith.

After Powell became pregnant with their son Julian, the couple married in August 1962, and they lived at Kenwood in Weybridge from 1964 to 1968, where she kept house and participated with Lennon in a London-based social life.

"[4] Powell once overheard Lennon give a compliment to a girl with blonde hair in the college, who looked similar to the French actress Brigitte Bardot.

[20][21] Lennon's jealousy could also manifest itself in violent behaviour towards her, as when he slapped her across the face (causing her head to hit a wall),[22] after watching her dance with his friend Stuart Sutcliffe.

[27] After returning home, Lennon's aunt and legal guardian, Mimi Smith, threw a hand-mirror at him for spending a lot of money on a suede coat for Powell.

[42][43][44] The wedding was farcical, because as soon as the ceremony began a workman in the backyard of the building opposite started using a pneumatic drill that drowned out anything the registrar, Lennon, or Powell said.

[61] In November, she had Julian christened at Hoylake Parish Church, but did not tell Lennon (who was on tour at the time), because Powell feared a media circus.

[64] After living at Lennon's aunt's house for some months, the couple moved to London and found a three-bedroomed flat at 13 Emperor's Gate, off Cromwell Road.

[69] On the tour, she was left behind in New York when Lennon and the other Beatles were quickly ushered into a car, and in Miami she had to ask the help of fans to convince a security guard who she was.

[71] At the Emperor's Gate address the situation grew worse,[23] with fans sticking chewing gum in the lock of the flat and tearing at any article of clothing when she or Lennon were leaving or arriving.

[72] American girls would write her letters proclaiming their desperate love for John; the women in the lives of the other Beatles received equivalent missives.

[82] Although Cynthia enjoyed entertaining in the larger rooms, Lennon could usually be found in a small sunroom at the back of the house overlooking the swimming pool, which was similar to his aunt's conservatory in Liverpool.

[85] When she passed her driving test, Lennon serially bought her a white Mini, a gold Porsche, a red Ferrari, and a green Volkswagen Beetle, usually as surprises without consulting her first.

[88] Kenwood became the place to visit for the other Beatles, various American musicians, and total strangers who Lennon had met the previous night in London nightclubs.

[91] During an interview at Kenwood with Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave, Lennon said, "Here I am in my Hansel and Gretel house, famous and loaded, and I can't go anywhere.

[103][100] By 1967, Lennon's aggressive edges from his childhood had disappeared, and he spent considerable amounts of time sitting in his sunroom or garden and daydreaming for hours on end.

"[113] Paul Saltzman later published a book of photographs, The Beatles in Rishikesh,[114] showing Lennon deep in thought, and Cynthia's confused expression.

[116] He went on to detail his liaisons with groupies, friends (such as Joan Baez, actress Eleanor Bron, journalist Cleave) and "thousands" of women around the globe.

"[118] Two weeks later, in May 1968, Lennon suggested Cynthia take a holiday in Greece with Mardas, Donovan, and two friends, as he would be very busy recording songs for what would become the White Album.

[123] After an evening with Italian hotelier Roberto Bassanini, Mardas was waiting at the hotel to break the news that Lennon was planning to sue for divorce on grounds of adultery, seek sole custody of Julian, and "send her back to Hoylake.

"[127] She said in 2005: "The mere fact that 'Magic Alex' [Mardas] arrived in Italy in the middle of the night without any prior knowledge of where I was staying made me extremely suspicious.

[131] The financial settlement was hampered by Lennon's refusing to offer any more than £75,000 (equivalent to £1,642,900 in 2025),[35][132] telling her on the phone that the payment was akin to winning the football pools and that she was not worth any more.

[103] Julian had been allowed to visit his father twice a year by himself, but John Lennon complained that during his time with Pang his ex-wife also wanted to be present, saying, "She [Cynthia] thought she could walk back in 'cos I wasn't with Yoko!"

"[155][5] Cynthia began a relationship with Liverpudlian chauffeur Jim Christie in 1981, who became her partner for 17 years as well as her business manager, living in Penrith, Cumbria.

[160] With Cynthia's finances in an unsteady state – she would say in 1999 that "Apart from John, the men I have fallen in love with have never been good at earning a living" – more of her memorabilia of Lennon went up for auction in 1991, including antiques from Kenwood.

[170] Cynthia was subsequently portrayed in the troubled, Ono-centric 2005 American musical Lennon, with her character – played by Julia Murney – gaining a little more prominence during one of the show's rewrites.

[173] Cynthia's character was absent from the 2009 British film Nowhere Boy, which purported to cover the story of Lennon from 1955 to 1960 but focused on his relationships with his aunt and mother.

"[132] Rachael Donadio in the New York Times said that the book "paints the picture of a man wounded by the deaths of family and friends, and tells the difficult story of the domestic front during Beatlemania."

"[177] In 2006, Cynthia and Julian attended the Las Vegas premiere of the Cirque du Soleil production of Love, which marked a rare public appearance with Ono.

"[186] Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, who had spent considerable time with Cynthia and Lennon in the 1960s while researching his book, remembered her as "a lovely woman ... She was totally different from John in that she was quiet, reserved and calm.