Sean Ono Lennon, the son of Beatles co-founder John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, spoke out in a some rare statements about what his parents were really like, and why they recorded so much material that has found its way into a new documentary.
Lennon opened up to Variety in April 2025 ahead of the Imax big-screen release of the documentary “John & Yoko: One to One” which chronicles the pair “from their heady first days in New York to their galvanizing concert at Madison Square Garden in 1972,” per the New York Times.
John Lennon’s Son Said Parents Wanted to Show “Truth of Who They Really Were”
Lennon said in the Variety sit-down that his parents’ custom of recording their activities and interactions, including several phone calls that show up in the film, put them “ahead of their time.”
He emphasized the couple’s uniqueness for “doing that in the early ’70s, before reality television and before social media, and before memes.” Lennon went on, “As far as I’m concerned, they were the first reality TV celebrity couple.” He also gave his parents credit for being “the first to kind of use memes to spread their own ideas with,” listing several examples of their hit slogans such as “War Is Over If You Want It” and “Hair Peace.”
GettyLennon described his parents’ documentation of their daily lives by saying, “It’s fascinating to see how they were able to use the technology to document and record their private lives while also sort of using that level of intimacy to create media that was important to them.” He added that the two stars wanted people to see them “unmanicured and unfiltered.”
Lennon pointed out how it is now normal to see celebrities sharing the mundane simplicity of their daily activities on social media, his father and Ono were “kind of ahead of their time in that regard in terms of wanting to really show the world the truth of who they were.”
GettyJohn Lennon’s Son Said The President Wanted to Deport His Dad
The son of the Beatles powerhouse, who served as a lead vocalist along with playing the guitar, explained his parents’ motivations for recording so often. He said his parents documented their lives via 16 millimeter film while living in England in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and then recorded all of their phone calls after moving to New York, in part due to concerns about FBI monitoring and President Nixon’s desire to deport John Lennon.
“Nixon was trying to deport my dad from the country,” revealed the rockstar’s son. He went on to point out how his dad is heard on one recording saying, “I’m recording all of these calls just so we have our own copy of this, so if anyone ever tries to say anything about what we are talking about, then we’ll have our own version — so we’ll know what the truth is.”
The 100-minute documentary, “John & Yoko: One to One,” premiered in IMAX theaters on April 11, 2025. Decider says it will be available to stream on HBO’s Max in “late 2025.”