Yoko Ono was thrust into the spotlight when she married The Beatles guitarist John Lennon in 1969. The pair had met three years earlier at her art exhibit, the start of a romance that took the world by storm. Yoko has since led a successful entertainment career of her own that has contributed to her massive net worth.
Yoko has an estimated net worth of $700 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The artist was born in Japan in 1933 and moved to the U.S. to study at Sarah Lawrence College. She married Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi in 1956. Her emergence in the avant-garde art scene continued to grow and she began to exhibit her work in the early ‘60s.
Yoko divorced Toshi in 1962 and married producer Anthony Cox that same year. Their marriage was annulled in 1963 because her prior divorce had not been finalized, according to The Beatles Bible. The “Kiss Kiss Kiss” singer married Anthony again in 1963, this time making their marriage official. The couple became artistic collaborators and welcomed their daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, on August 8, 1963.
Yoko divorced her second husband in 1969 and married John later that year. The pair had kept in touch and collaborated on their first experimental album while the “Imagine” singer was still married to Cynthia Lennon. Yoko contributed vocals to The Beatles’ ninth studio album and formed The Plastic Ono Band with John.
The couple released eight studio albums together before John’s death in 1980. After the English songwriter’s death, Yoko wanted the world to see some of John’s art, one of the things he was passionate about the most. She worked with galleries, museums and distributors to sell prints of his sketches.
“Yeah. After John’s passing, the first thing I thought was … well, I have to finish Milk and Honey. But after that, I thought we should do something about John’s artwork,” she told Esquire in October 2015. “So I got these professional people who create that kind of program, and that worked very well. Now his work is shown in many places.”
Shortly after John’s murder, Yoko released Season of Glass which landed at No. 49 on the Billboard 200 Album chart. She also achieved chart success with the release of Milk and Honey, her final album with John released posthumously. In 2009, The Plastic Ono band remerged onto the scene with John and Yoko’s son, Sean Lennon, as a part of the lineup. The group has since collaborated with Lenny Kravitz, Questlove and the Beastie boys.
In 2017, it was announced by the National Music Publishers Association that Yoko would receive songwriting credits on John’s hit “Imagine.” The organization was inspired to make the change after a clip of John resurfaced where he spoke about Yoko’s influence and work on the song. Sean was there to celebrate the occasion with his mom at the event and has long admired his mom’s resilience in the industry.
“I don’t really know where my mom got her rebellious nature from, but she obviously has it in spades,” Sean told Harper’s Bazaar in July 2017. “She just does what she feels; she doesn’t belabor anything or second-guess herself. From a very early age, she was doing completely radical work.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLjOrJyrr5WauK3FjZympmegpMC1v46ypqSnXaS7sL%2BMp5ytZaekv7W0jKGmsGWdqrCpecyopZ6xXam1pnnAq6uiq6RiuqK3xKxm