Yoko Ono: John Lennon Had ‘Desire’ to Have Sex with Men

John Lennon was bisexual but never acted out his desires with another man, his widow Yoko Ono claims.

In a new interview with the Daily Beast, Ono, now 82, discussed her own sexuality as well as that of the late Beatle, who she said had a “desire” to sleep with men but did not because he could not find a sufficiently attractive man.

“I think he had a desire to, but I think he was too inhibited,” Ono said, before elaborating: “No, not inhibited. He said, ‘I don’t mind if there’s an incredibly attractive guy.’ It’s very difficult: they would have to be not just physically attractive, but mentally very advanced too. And you can’t find people like that.”

Ono said she had a discussion with her late husband before his untimely death in 1980, in which they hypothesized that all people are bisexual at heart.

“Well, here’s another thing. John and I had a big talk about it, saying, basically, all of us must be bisexual,” she told the Daily Beast. “And we were sort of in a situation of thinking that we’re not [bisexual] because of society. So we are hiding the other side of ourselves, which is less acceptable. But I don’t have a strong sexual desire towards another woman.”

Ono also addressed the long-floating rumor that Lennon had sex with Beatles manager Brian Epstein on a trip to Spain in 1963. Lennon himself characterized the relationship as “intense,” but said he and his manager “never consummated” it.

“Uh, well, the story I was told was a very explicit story, and from that I think they didn’t have it [sex],” Ono said. “But they went to Spain, and when they came back, tons of reporters were asking, ‘Did you do it, did you do it?’ So he said, ‘I did it.’ Isn’t that amazing? But of course he would say that. I’m sure Brian Epstein made a move, yeah.”

Ono also discussed her Icon award, set to be presented to her at the UK’s Attitude Awards on October 14 for her art and for her support of LGBT rights.

“Equality is people having to create their own future,” Ono said. “That’s what [gay people] are doing. They should be very, very positive.”

She added that prejudice “goes both ways, I’m sure gays feel straights are really dumb. There’s more freedom being gay probably, that’s good.”

Ono also discussed her enduring fear of her husband’s killer, Mark David Chapman, her relationship with Paul McCartney and her children Sean and Kyoko Lennon in the wide-ranging Daily Beast interview. Check out the rest here.