Paul McCartney (83) declared that Yoko Ono asked him by phone after the death of John Lennon († 40) if her husband could have been homosexual. McCartney recalled this in a 2015 interview for the book Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. The interview has now been published in full by Vanity Fair magazine.
According to McCartney, Ono, 93, called him shortly after Lennon’s murder in 1980. The musician recalled: “I swear Yoko called me shortly after John died and said, ‘You know, I think John might have been gay.'” McCartney stated that he disagreed with this view. “I said, ‘I’m not sure. I don’t think so. Certainly not in the time I knew him.’ We were together in the 60s. We were surrounded by lots of girls. And I saw that he had great success with them.” described.
At the same time, the musician emphasized that during the years he spent in The Beatles, he never had reason to believe that Lennon had relationships with men. “I often slept in the same bed with John, but nothing ever happened. There was no gesture, no hint. Nothing. So I had no reason to believe it at all.” he said.
McCartney also stated that speculation about his sexuality may have arisen after a trip to Spain in 1963 that Lennon took with the band’s manager Brian Epstein. Epstein was a homosexual, and according to the singer, this very fact led to various rumors. “There were rumors because John went to Spain with Brian. But I saw it as a kind of power play that was typical of John. I personally didn’t think anything happened between them. I certainly never heard of anything happening.” he added.
