Shortly after the murder of John Lennon in 1980, Yoko Ono, the musician's widow, rang up his former bandmate in The Beatles, Paul McCartney.
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In the conversation, McCartney says Ono shared with him a suspicion she had about her husband's sexuality.
McCartney said, "I swear [Ono] rang me shortly after John died and said, 'You know, I think John might have been gay.'"
How Did Paul McCartney Reply to Ono's Claim?
News of this conversation isn't new. A new documentary on McCartney's time with his band Wings, titled Man on the Run, was recently released on Prime Video. Vanity Fair recently republished the 2015 interview it conducted with The Beatles' bassist to celebrate the film's release.
The singer then talked about his response to Ono's claim.
"I went, 'I'm not sure.' I said, 'I don't think so. Certainly not when I knew him,'" he said. "Because we'd been in the '60s. We'd been around with loads and loads of girls. And I bumped into seeing him jacking ... a lot of girl action."
McCartney added that he had "slept with John very often, but there was never anything."
"There was never a gesture, never an expression," he said. "It was nothing. So I had no reason to believe this at all."
There Were Rumors About the Sexuality of The Beatles
Brian Epstein, who was The Beatles' manager, was gay. Rumors about Lennon's sexuality began to swirl after he and Epstein traveled together in 1963.
"But I saw that as a power play, which was very John," McCartney said. "Brian would ask him as a homosexual thing - a good-looking boy who Brian fancied. They went down to Spain, had a fun time. No doubt John would play into the thing."
He added, "I personally didn't think anything had happened. Certainly never heard about anything happening. But I saw it as: 'You want to deal with the Beatles? I'm the leader.'"
It's doubtful that these claims will be addressed in the upcoming biopics about The Beatles. Director Sam Mendes, the filmmaker behind American Beauty and Skyfall, is currently working on an ambitious four-film biopic about the influential group.
Each film will tell the story of the Beatles from their individual points of view, intersecting for what Mendes calls the "first singable theatrical experience."
Paul Mescal, who headlined 2024's Gladiator II, has been cast as Paul McCartney. John Lennon will be played by Harris Dickinson. This is the first time that The Beatles and its company, Apple Corps Ltd., have granted the life rights and music for a feature film.
