Julian Lennon Didn't Inherit Dad's Money For 15 Years After His Death



(image via geordierussell)

One of the enduring rock family sagas is that of the Lennons. For years Julian and Yoko have been enriching lawyers, suing at will over what is Julian's actual stake of his biological father's fortune. If Sean Lennon -- the biological son of Yoko -- is the happy one, Julian is the black sheep of the Lennons (From USAToday, May 30, 1999: "Though he 'dearly loves' his .. half brother, Sean, Julian remains bitter toward stepmother Yoko Ono. 'In Yoko's mind, the only important Lennon family is Yoko and Sean. ... But he and I are blood, and the only thing Yoko will never have is the Lennon blood and talent. She has everything else.'" He is the son of that famous Beatle, is the son of Cynthia and John Lennon, who split when Julian was 5. According to Julian he only saw his dad a dozen times or so before his murder in Manhattan. From Fox 411:

"Yoko Ono’s lawyer, Peter Shukat, told us something we didn’t know. He said in his letter that Julian Lennon had been receiving money from his father’s estate since 1995. I had only been told, repeatedly, that Julian was constantly fighting with Ono for money.

"But the 1995 date is important. John Lennon was killed on December 8, 1980. That means for fifteen years Julian did not receive anything from his father’s estate — or not until he was 32 years old. Shukat did not elaborate on why it took so long for John Lennon’s eldest son to inherit money from the arguably the most famous of all rock’s singer songwriters."

Yoko Ono, who has scaled back her avante garde career, is a scion of one of the most privileged families in Japan. Her billionaire maternal grandfather, Zenjiro Yasuda, founded the Yasuda Bank.