Never-before-seen papers from John Lennon's bitter 1968 divorce give inside account of Beatle's drug abuse, affair with Yoko Ono and aggressive behaviour towards his young son Julian

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Never-before-seen papers from John Lennon's bitter 1968 divorce give inside account of Beatle's drug abuse, affair with Yoko Ono and aggressive behaviour towards his young son Julian
·  Five-page document was drafted by Cynthia Lennon's divorce lawyers
·  Centres on claims made by Lennon's longtime housekeeper Dorothy Jarlett
·  She revealed what she saw while working at Lennon family home in Surrey
·  Details visits by Yoko Ono, mood swings and increased drug taking
·  Papers expected to fetch £5,000 when they go up for auction next month
·  Suggestion Lennon family might buy it to stop it being widely published
By STEPHANIE LINNING FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 13 February 2015

A never-before-seen dossier detailing the bitter breakdown of John Lennon's marriage to his first wife Cynthia has been uncovered after nearly 50 years.
The five-page document, drafted by the solicitors dealing with the Beatle's divorce in 1968, reveals details of his increasing drug use and his affair with Yoko Ono.
It centres on claims made by Dorothy Jarlett, Lennon's housekeeper of four years, on what she saw while working at the Lennon family home Kenwood in Weybridge, Surrey.
The papers, which will go up for auction next month, also details his mood swings, aggressive behaviour towards his young son Julian and heated arguments between him and Cynthia.


Breakdown: The papers reveal how Lennon became nonchalant towards his wife Cynthia (pictured together) around 1967 - five years after they tied the knot - when the Beatles were at the height of their fame


Uncovered: The five-page document, pictured being held up by Omega auction manager Karen Faireweather, was drafted by the solicitors dealing with the Beatle's divorce in 1968


'Smacked': The document details John Lennon's mood swings, aggressive behaviour towards his young son Julian (pictured with his father and Yoko Ono) and heated arguments between him and Cynthia

Mrs Jarlett describes how Yoko Ono would visit the country pile while Cynthia was out of the country, and how she once found the pair in bed together.
She reveals how Lennon became nonchalant towards his wife around 1967 - five years after they tied the knot - when the Beatles were at the height of their fame.
She said Lennon was uninterested in playing the father figure role and that he would smack Julian if he misbehaved.
The statement was made to Herbert Oppenheimer, Nathan and Vandyk - a firm of solicitors in London employed by Cynthia following the breakdown of the marriage.
They then sent a draft version back to Mrs Jarlett, who made amendments and crossed some sections out - marking the retracted statements with a blue pen.
The document has never been seen before because Lennon and Cynthia settled out of court, with Lennon agreeing to pay her £100,000 and give her custody of Julian.


Retracted: Mrs Jarlett made amendments to the draft and crossed some sections out - including this one about Lennon's drug taking - marking the statements she wished to withdraw with a blue pen

It was found among Mrs Jarlett's possessions following her death last year.
The documents are set to fetch £5,000 when they go under the hammer at Omega Auctions in Warrington, Cheshire on March 24.
It has been suggested the Lennon family may buy the document to stop it being widely published.
Mrs Jarlett, who worked for the Lennons for four years, wrote: 'I was first employed by Mr and Mrs Lennon in August 1964 as nanny/housekeeper.
'My duties were generally looking after the house and taking care of Julian when Mr and Mrs Lennon were away.
'My work did not involve sleeping in the house except for periods of time when Mr Lennon and Mrs Lennon were away and then only to look after Julian and the house.
'Until about the summer 1967 I thought the house was reasonably happy. I do remember some differences of opinion between Mr and Mrs Lennon but nothing out of the ordinary.
'Mr Lennon was frequently away on tour, filming and recording and I did not see very much of him.
'I do not think that Mr Lennon showed the usual interest the father showed in the household. He was certainly not bad with Julian, but he appeared to be preoccupied with other matters.
'From about a year ago Mr Lennon did not seem as keen as before to take Mrs Lennon out with him to various functions, studio recordings etc., to which he had previously taken Mrs Lennon.
'I quite often heard Mrs Lennon ask whether she could accompany him, but he had refused, making excuses for not taking her. He would only take her, if they had been invited out together.
'The atmosphere seemed to change and there seemed more tension. As a result Mrs Lennon was often depressed and unhappy.'
In a section of text she later crossed out in blue pen, Mrs Jarlett recalls how she discovered Lennon's drug taking habit after he left packets of cannabis lying round the house.
She wrote: 'This was some months after the time Mr Lennon started taking drugs, I knew of this, because I began noticing drugs lying around in various parts of the house.
'It was quite clear to me that Mr Lennon was smoking pot, and we all hoped that it was a phase and that he would get over it.
'I have seen pot around the house since then.'
Describing what she had seen of Yoko Ono, Mrs Jarlett wrote: 'Before Mrs Lennon went to Greece, I had seen Yoko Ono at the house twice.
'I had brought tea and coffee into the room and John and Yoko had always been chatting together.
'I had no reason to suspect any illicit associations. It appeared to me that she was rather more a friend of John; she always spoke to John and I never saw her talking to Mrs Lennon.
'On one occasion, I know that she stayed at the house overnight, but Mrs Lennon was there and I made breakfast for the three of them the next morning.'
On a later page she told of how she found Lennon and Yoko in bed together.
Mrs Jarlett also described Lennon's tough approach to parenting, and that it was the source of arguments between him and his wife.

 
Heartache: Cynthia Lennon pictured shortly after her divorce to John Lennon in November 1968 (left) and in 2006 (right). She went on to marry twice more - in 1970 and 1976


Collapse: This section of the document describes the breakdown of the Lennons' marriage, as witnessed by Mrs Jarlett. Their troubles came to a head in 1968 when Lennon drunkenly confessed to having affairs

She wrote: 'When Mr Lennon was at home there were often rows during meals when John seemed to be too severe with Julian and criticised the way he behaved at table.
'Julian, who was a very sensitive child at the time would become upset and Mrs Lennon would argue with Mr Lennon about this.
'As a result there would be an argument about the way Julian was being brought up.
'Mr Lennon would say Mrs Lennon was too soft with him. I think that he was probably not enough with his son at my house owing to his profession to know how to handle him.
'Julian's table manners were if anything better than average.'
Mrs Jarlett crossed out a line from the paragraph stating: 'As a result he would often smack him'.
The Lennons' marriage troubles came to a head in February 1968 when Lennon drunkenly confessed to sleeping with other women during their marriage.
He suggested Cynthia take a holiday in Greece, and when she returned she found her husband and Yoko Ono sitting on the floor opposite each other wearing only bath robes.
The nail in the coffin came in August 1968 with the news that Yoko was pregnant.
Karen Fairweather, manager of Omega Auctions, said: 'This sensational document has never been seen before - it was found among the possessions of Dot Jarlett, the Lennons' long-serving housekeeper, following her death last year.
'These papers were part of her estate but up until her death no-one knew they were there.
'Dot's statement is a fly-on-the-wall inside view of the life of the Lennons. Dot helped raise Julian and was probably the closest person to John Lennon aside from Cynthia and Yoko.
'In fact she was so loved that John named their dog Bernard after Dot's husband.
'The other parties involved in the divorce - John, Cynthia and Yoko - are never going to reveal anything about it so this is the next best thing.
'Dot was asked to provide an independent statement to Cynthia's solicitors. Originally John sought divorce from Cynthia on the grounds that she had committed adultery but as we all know it was the other way round.
'Dot had been to the solicitors and given her statement, and the solicitor has then drafted a document and sent it back to her to check.
'But she thought it best to cross out the stuff about John smacking Julian and his drug taking. Perhaps she thought it too controversial.
'Also, she was very close to John and would have felt some sympathy for him.
'We've had a lot of interest in this from collectors already and we are expecting plenty more, not just from the UK but internationally too.
'It's not beyond the realms of possibility that someone from the Lennon family might want to get their hands on it to stop its entire contents coming out.'





TEENAGE SWEETHEARTS: STORY OF CYNTHIA AND JOHN LENNON
Cynthia Lennon, nee Powell, grew up in a middle-class community on the Wirral, met John Lennon while they were both students at the Liverpool College of Art. 
The pair married in 1962, when Cynthia was just 22, after she became pregnant with their son Julian. 
Beatles' members George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein - who was best man - all attended.
The Lennons bought Kenwood, then a 22-bedroom home, in Weybridge, Surrey, for £20,000 in 1964. 
Kenwood became the place to visit for the other Beatles, various American musicians and total strangers that Lennon had met the previous night in London nightclubs.
While she had suspicions of Lennon's infidelity over the years, with friends telling her that Lennon had had numerous affairs as far back as their time together at art college in Liverpool, Cynthia ignored the warnings.
According to housekeeper Dorothy Jarlett, Lennon became nonchalant towards his wife around 1967 - five years after they tied the knot - when the Beatles were at the height of their fame. 
The Lennons' marriage troubles came to a head in February 1968 when Lennon drunkenly confessed to sleeping with other women during their marriage. 
Lennon suggested Cynthia take a holiday with friends. She returned to find her husband sitting across from Yoko Ono on the floor - staring into each other's eyes.
After years of trouble, the marriage finally ended in August 1968 when Yoko Ono discovered she was pregnant. 
Fearing a lengthy divorce process, the couple settled outside of court, with Lennon agreeing to pay Cynthia £100,000 and give her custody of Julian.
She learned of Lennon's death on 8 December 1980, while she was staying with friends in London. 
She married Italian hotelier Roberto Bassanini in 1970, divorcing him in 1973. In 1976, she married John Twist, an engineer from Lancashire, but divorced him in 1983. 


John and Cynthia Lennon


'MR LENNON WAS PREOCCUPIED': DOROTHY JARLETT DESCRIBES THE LENNONS' MARRIAGE BREAKDOWN
'Until about the summer 1967 I thought the house was reasonably happy. I do remember some differences of opinion between Mr and Mrs Lennon but nothing out of the ordinary.
'Mr Lennon was frequently away on tour, filming and recording and I did not see very much of him.
'I do not think that Mr Lennon showed the usual interest the father showed in the household. He was certainly not bad with Julian, but he appeared to be preoccupied with other matters.
'From about a year ago Mr Lennon did not seem as keen as before to take Mrs Lennon out with him to various functions, studio recordings etc., to which he had previously taken Mrs Lennon.
'I quite often heard Mrs Lennon ask whether she could accompany him, but he had refused, making excuses for not taking her. He would only take her, if they had been invited out together.
'The atmosphere seemed to change and there seemed more tension. As a result Mrs Lennon was often depressed and unhappy.'


Cynthia and John Lennon