When Yoko Ono married John Lennon in 1969, she had a child from a previous marriage.
Over the course of her marriage to John, she and the Beatle would become embroiled in a
manhunt attempting to track this child down.
It seems that Yoko’s previous husband wanted their daughter to have nothing to do with
her, and he got his wish until the child was 31 years old.
That child’s name is Kyoko Chan Cox, and she is now 59.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Yoko Ono’s long-lost daughter has finally come forward.
John Lennon Wasn’t Yoko Ono’s First Love In 1963, Kyoko Chan Cox was born.
She was born to Yoko Ono and Tony Cox, who were two figures in the alternative culture
that few people expected to procreate.
By the time that Yoko Ono became romantically involved with Tony Cox during the early 1960s,
she had already been married once previously.
Yoko’s first husband was a man by the name of Toshi Ichiyanagi.
Toshi is still alive today and is renowned for his contributions to the world of avant-garde
music.
Yoko was married to Tony Cox twice over the course of the early 1960s, though the couple
couldn’t make their relationship work.
Their first marriage lasted from 1962 until 1963, and their second marriage lasted from
1963 until 1969.
At the time, both Yoko and Tony were artists in the same counter-culture scene.
They did some multimedia work during their marriage, though it’s undeniable that their
most notable collaborate effort remains their daughter.
Though Yoko and Tony tried to make their relationship work for their daughter’s sake, the two
ended up finding that they weren’t meant to be together.
At first, the separation between the two artists was amicable.
However, this all allegedly changed once Tony realized that Yoko had found a new love interest
in the form of world-famous musician John Lennon.
Once Tony caught wind of John Lennon’s involvement in the proceedings, he decided that he no
longer want to share custody of his and Yoko’s daughter.
Tony Cox Didn’t Want John Lennon Raising His Daughter
What could’ve been an amicable separation turned sour as a result of Tony Cox realizing
that John Lennon had stolen his wife!
After divorcing from Tony in 1969, Yoko wasted no time in marrying John the very same year.
Because of this, Tony took Kyoko and ran.
This then resulted in Yoko and John desperately scrambling for over a decade to track down
the girl.
However, they ended up having no luck.
When Yoko Ono first became pregnant with Kyoko, she allegedly considered giving the child
up for adoption after she was born.
Yoko was said to have referred to Kyoko as a tumor during the pregnancy, showing that
she certainly wasn’t all that excited about becoming a mother.
Eventually, she decided that she was going to do her best to be there for the newborn
baby.
Sadly, Yoko would go on to lose the kid anyways, but in a completely different way.
Once Yoko realized that Tony Cox had disappeared with her daughter, her and John Lennon began
doing everything in their power to try and track Kyoko down.
The manhunt began in 1969, just after Yoko and John got married.
John heard rumors that Tony had fled to live in hiding at the home of the Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi.
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was notable for being the same spiritual figure that the Beatles
had stayed alongside during the trip which resulted in the creation of their most iconic
popular music.
How Was the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Involved?
It seems that alternative artists ran in close-knit circles during the late 1960s, as Yoko Ono’s
lost daughter and that daughter’s father somehow ended up momentarily in the care of
the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
However, by the time that Yoko and John caught wind of this fact, Tony and Kyoko were nowhere
to be found.
Still, John likely appreciated getting the chance to reunite with his spiritual guru.
Though Kyoko and her father weren’t staying with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Yoko and John
ended up tracking the young girl and her father down at a hotel.
Tony left Kyoko with a playgroup, and it was at this time that the stalking Yoko and John
decided to spring into action.
Yoko snuck up upon the playgroup and tried to discreetly coax Kyoko away.
However, Kyoko was incredibly distraught by the appearance of her mother and began crying
for her father.
Kyoko’s cries ended up thwarting John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s first attempt to kidnap Kyoko
for themselves.
The incident ended in Yoko and John being arrested, though John’s manager was able
to bribe them out of jail.
Following their stay behind bar, Yoko and John realized that they were going to have
to go the legal route in trying to gain custody of Kyoko.
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Yoko and John Moved to America to Be with Kyoko
It was Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s attempts to gain legal custody of Kyoko Chan Cox that
led to the couple relocating from the United Kingdom to America.
It was in the United States that Tony Cox intended to raise his and Yoko’s daughter,
and Yoko was going to need to stick close by if she wanted any chance to be a part of
that daughter’s lie.
Yoko and Tony then entered into various custody battles throughout America, and this resulted
in two separate state courts each awarding a different of the two parties' custody.
According to the US Virgin Islands, Yoko deserved custody of Kyoko.
However, according to the state of Texas, it was Tony Cox that deserved custody of the
girl.
Since Tony Cox was holding Kyoko in Houston, Texas, it ended up being the ruling of the
Texas courts that proved more influential.
However, this didn’t stop Yoko from continuing to pursue shared custody.
Eventually, she managed to secure visitation rights.
However, Tony was too paranoid to allow the visitation to actually occur.
Not wanting his daughter to spend any amount of time alone with either her mother or John
Lennon, Tony refused to allow his daughter to visit.
Instead, he said that Yoko could only visit their daughter within the presence of Tony’s
own personal minister.
Tony Cox certainly had plenty of reason to be afraid about letting Kyoko visit her mother.
Yoko Ono had tried to steal Kyoko away from him at that hotel in India, and Tony was afraid
that she was going to try something similar should he allow Kyoko to visit her in America.
Despite the fact that Tony Cox was justified in not wanting his daughter to visit Yoko,
the courts still found in the mother’s favor.
Tony Cox Broke the Law to Prevent the Reunion It was determined that Tony Cox needed to
allow Kyoko to visit her mother if they didn’t want to face the wrath of the law.
With nowhere to turn, it seemed that Tony was finally going to be forced to allow the
visitation to occur.
However, Tony ended up surprising the world by going on the run.
From this moment on, Yoko and John’s hunt for Kyoko became a matter of national concern.
Pictures of Kyoko were plastered all over television, and everyone was trying desperately
to track the young girl and her father down.
Yoko Ono and John Lennon used every ounce of their celebrity resources to try and track
down Kyoko, but nothing worked.
It seems that the young girl’s father had hidden her away too successfully, and Yoko
was eventually forced to accept that she was unlikely to ever reunite with her lost child.
Yoko and John went on to have a child of their own in 1975, with that child being Sean Lennon.
Of course, tragedy then struck several years later when John Lennon was assassinated.
John died in December of 1980.
John Lennon’s assassination put an end to his marriage to Yoko Ono, though Yoko is still
around to this day.
Shortly after John’s passing, Yoko received a telegram that was apparently from Tony Cox.
The telegram alleged that he and Kyoko were doing well, but that he had no intention of
ever allowing Yoko and the girl to reunite.
Eventually, at the age of 31, Kyoko herself would make the decision to get into contact
with her mother.
Yoko Ono is now 89 years old, and she has never remarried since John’s death.
Kyoko is now 59, which means that it’s been well over two decades since the former lost
child got back into contact with her mother.
In the many years since Yoko and Kyoko have been reunited, the two have maintained a close
relationship in order to make up for all the years that they were apart.
Yoko and Kyoko Have Long-Since Made Contact Though Kyoko has long since repaired her relationship
with her mother, that doesn’t mean that she has turned her back on her father.
Tony Cox is still alive today, as well, and he’s 85 years old.
After divorcing Yoko Ono and going on the run with Kyoko, Tony remarried and tried to
give his daughter some semblance of a normal life.
Tony claims that he was always too afraid to willingly let his daughter reunite with
Yoko, as he felt that being involved with her was like touching a piece of high-voltage
equipment.
For her part, Kyoko understands why her father was so protective over her growing up and
she doesn’t hold any grudges.
Shortly before his assassination, John Lennon publicly reflected on the matter of his and
Yoko’s attempts to track down Kyoko and her father.
Thought the manhunt was still technically ongoing, both Yoko and John had made peace
with the fact that they were unlikely to be reunited with Kyoko by the time of John’s
death.
John died believing that he was the true reason that Tony Cox had been so adamant about not
wanting Kyoko to have anything to do with her mother.
Yoko Ono and John Lennon used up all of their resources during the 1970s attempting to track
down the prior figure’s long-lost daughter, but they weren’t successful.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Yoko Ono claimed that being pregnant
with her first child felt like having a tumor inside of her, and that said child’s father
did everything he could to keep the two apart?
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